The CW is gearing up for pilot season with a slew of pilot orders that are guaranteed to generate a lot of buzz.
Keeping in true CW fashion, the network did a bulk of its pilot orders in one big swoop. The pilots that were ordered are all based on well-known properties and they include two spinoffs to existing CW series while the other two have a pedigree that is familiar to many around the world.
First on deck is Katy Keene, a Riverdale spinoff which follows four Archie Comics characters. The series is centered around a budding fashionista in New York City and is the second Riverdale spinoff after The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina which started at the CW before moving to Netflix where it has been a breakout hit. Super producer, Greg Berlanti, is behind the spinoff and it will mark his second pilot order on The CW this season after the recent order for Batwoman.
The Jane the Virgin spinoff, Jane the Novela, is envisioned as a soapy, telenovela-inspired anthology series in the tradition of Jane the Virgin, where each season is based on a different fictional novel “written by” Jane Villanueva and narrated by the author herself. The first installment takes place at a Napa Valley Vineyard. Jane the Virgin star, Gina Rodriguez, is behind the project as a producer.
The Lost Boys, based on the 1987 vampire cult classic directed by Joel Schumacher, was originally developed with Veronica Mars creator, Rob Thomas, during the 2016-17 development season. While the project didn’t go to pilot, the network brass remained very high on the title and had been looking to redevelop it. While Thomas has been busy with his Veronica Mars reboot for Hulu, a take by writer Heather Mitchell (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) got everyone excited, and the new incarnation picked up steam this development season. On the series, after the sudden death of their father, two brothers move to Santa Carla with their mother, who hopes to start anew in the town where she grew up. But the brothers find themselves drawn deeper and deeper into the seductive world of Santa Carla’s eternally beautiful and youthful undead.
Lastly, there is the untitled Nancy Drew pilot which is centered on 18-year-old Nancy Drew in the summer after her high school graduation. The series is inspired by the classic mysteries of the title character and comes from Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire (Gossip Girl, Dynasty). Launching a Nancy Drew TV series has been a priority for CBS TV Studios, which has the rights to the classic YA mystery books originally published by Stratemeyer Syndicate and later Simon & Schuster. The studio developed two Nancy Drew series over the past three years, Drew at CBS during the 2015-16 development season, which went to pilot starring Sarah Shahi and got close to a series order, and Nancy Drew at NBC this past season. Both incarnations, from writers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater and producer Dan Jinks, were conceived as sequels to the books, with an adult Nancy Drew at the center.
The CW is said to not be done with their pilot orders. The LA Complex reboot is among the scripts that have been heating up and the network has an extra day to play with after the successful relaunch of Sunday night programming for the network this season with Supergirl and Charmed.
