The characters in the Canadian science fiction-fantasy television series Sanctuary are predominantly "abnormals": advanced humans or creatures, and the show centers on bringing other abnormals to the Sanctuary in the fictional Old City, for the purpose of protecting the public, as well as the abnormals themselves. Most of the Sanctuary team are abnormals, despite looking human: Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) has longevity, John Druitt (Christopher Heyerdahl) and Ashley Magnus (Emilie Ullerup) can teleport, and Henry Foss (Ryan Robbins) is a werewolf. Even Will Zimmerman (Robin Dunne) was twice turned to an abnormal temporarily: firstly in the episode "Warriors", then later in the episode "Metamorphosis". Several of the actors who play their respective characters have been nominated for Leo and Constellation Awards.
Main characters
Helen Magnus
Doctor Helen Magnus, played by Amanda Tapping is a 174-year-old teratologist (born August 27, 1850, and sent back in time 113 years.) and head of the Sanctuary in Old City. She was born in England during the Victorian era, and was one of the first female doctors and scientists of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Her father, Gregory Magnus, taught her about his private research of studying and helping the Abnormals. She later builds the Sanctuary Network in Old City using her father's designs to accommodate the Abnormals. On one hunt, she saves Will Zimmerman during his childhood from a deadly Abnormal, though she is unable to rescue his mother. Decades later, she recruits Will as her protege.
Will Zimmerman
Doctor Will Zimmerman, played by Robin Dunne is a police forensic psychiatrist, who possesses natural empathic abilities and a sense of perception. This trait leaves him unpopular with his bosses, and he is often ridiculed or ignored for theories that are "out of the box". Sometime before the series, his girlfriend, Meg (Kandyse McClure) breaks up with him. Will secretly suffers nightmares due to an encounter with an Abnormal that left his mother dead. While investigating the mysterious deaths of two local police officers, Will is confronted and eventually recruited by Helen Magnus to help treat her patients (specifically those who are difficult to reach emotionally and need to be convinced to trust her). Though highly skeptical of things that science cannot explain, he learns to accept all things extraordinary. He spends his time in the series on his travels with Magnus and the rest of the Sanctuary crew.
Ashley Magnus Ashley Magnus, played by Emilie Ullerup (webisodes & seasons 1–2) is the daughter of Helen Magnus and John Druitt. After her conception, Helen kept the frozen embryo for over a century. When she could no longer bear the loneliness from her longevity and from losing Druitt, though she is at first unaware of it, she retrieves the embryo. Despite what Ashley lacks in behavioral skills, she more than makes up for it as an expert monster hunter, becoming proficient in using advanced weaponry and technology. Ashley is quite close to her mother and provides a counterbalance to Helen's desire to protect Abnormals, as she normally doesn't hesitate in terminating hostile ones and using whatever methods necessary to capture targets. She is on good terms with Sylvio (known as Ernie in the Web series) and his men, though Helen thinks otherwise. In "The Five", she learns that Druitt is her father (she was made aware of it in the fourth Webisode), and eventually comes to accept it. In the Season 1 finale "Revelations", Ashley and Henry Foss break into a Cabal weapons facility to retrieve the files relating to "Lazarus", the weapon used to turn Abnormals on Humans, but are captured by the Cabal, who drug her and turn her into an Abnormal, inheriting her father's teleportation abilities. After the two escape, she is forced by Dana Whitcomb who now controls her to steal the vial of Vampire-blood taken by the team to cure the weapon, and escapes to the Cabal facility on Easter Island, where she is formally welcomed to The Cabal. In the season 2 premiere "End of Nights", the Cabal use the Vampire-blood to convert her into a Vampire-hybrid, which apparently destroys her personality. They then use her DNA to create five more hybrids, who start taking down the Sanctuary network. During an attack against the Old City facility, Ashley reasserts her original personality long enough to save her mother, apparently killing herself in the process by teleporting while the EM shield is up with the last hybrid. Magnus believes Ashley survives, but her searches are fruitless, Magnus is forced to accept that she is gone.
Bigfoot "Bigfoot", also known as big guy or biggie, played by Christopher Heyerdahl, who also plays John Druitt is an intelligent Neanderthal-like species, and a former patient of Dr. Magnus. Before he met Magnus, he liked to scare children. Magnus retrieved him (over fifty years ago) and has said to have removed "more than a few bullets" from him, and when he refused to leave her, she appointed him a place in her staff, where he mostly acts as a butler, chauffeur, body guard and general handy man. He is allergic to flowers. He admits to Will Zimmerman that he once scared him for fun during his childhood. Though he does appear to be afraid of him at first, Will grows to respect and befriend him. In the season 1 finale, he becomes infected with the Cabal bioweapon designed to turn abnormals against humans, and is confined to a cell, with the team hoping that a vial of Vampire blood used to try to stop the weapon would reverse his rampage. In the season 2 premiere, Bigfoot refuses to take the cure Tesla has developed, because taking anything made by humans would be against his people's beliefs, even though he is already an outcast to them. However, he eventually takes the serum to help his friends battle the Vampire-hybrids, after some persuasion by Magnus. Throughout the series, Bigfoot uses the caveman-like "ack, ack" expression. According to Damian Kindler, Heyerdahl invented it for his character. The expression has made an effect on the crew, who also sometimes uses the impression while on break as communicating each other.
John Druitt
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