The CW has given series orders to five dramas for the 2018-19 season, including reboots of “Charmed” and “Roswell, New Mexico.”
Also earning pickups are “In the Dark,” “All American,” and “Legacies.”
CW’s new roster for the coming season is once again heavy on fantasy and supernatural themes. “All American” is a departure in telling the culture-clash story of a high school football player from South Los Angeles who is recruited to play for a school in Beverly Hills. Penned by April Blair, “All American” adds another show to the CW roster of exec producer Greg Berlanti, who scored two drama series pickups from CBS earlier today.
The new spin on “Charmed,” which ran from 1998 to 2008 on the WB Network and CW, hails from “Jane the Virgin” showrunner Jennie Snyder Urman and Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin.
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“In the Dark,” created by Corinne Kingsbury, revolves around a blind woman who is the only witness to a murder and sets out to solve the case, with the help of her service dog. “Legacies,” steered by executive producers Julie Plec and Brett Matthews, is a supernatural vehicle about young students at a school for witches, vampires, and werewolves.
“Roswell, New Mexico,” penned by Carina Adly MacKenzie and also exec produced by Plec, centers on a woman who discovers that her teenage crush who became a police officer is an alien. The two work together to investigate his origins but become enmeshed in a violent attack and a longstanding government cover-up that points to a larger alien presence on Earth. An earlier incarnation of “Roswell,” steered by Jason Katims, ran on WB Network from 1999-2002.
Here’s a rundown of CW’s pickups:
CHARMED
Logline: After the tragic death of their mother, three sisters in a college town are stunned to discover they are witches. Soon this powerful threesome must stand together to fight the everyday and supernatural battles that all modern witches must face: from vanquishing powerful demons to toppling the patriarchy.
Executive Producers/Writers: Jessica O’Toole & Amy Rardin
Executive Producer/Story by: Jennie Urman
Executive Producers: Brad Silberling (director), Ben Silverman, Carter Covington
Auspices: CBS Television Studios in association with Propagate Content
IN THE DARK
Logline: A flawed and irreverent blind woman is the only “witness” to the murder of her drug-dealing friend. After the police dismiss her story, she sets out with her dog, Pretzel, to find the killer while also managing her colorful dating life and the job she hates at the guide dog school owned by her overprotective parents.
EP/W: Corinne Kingsbury
EPs: Ben Stiller, Jackie Cohn, Nicky Weinstock, Emily Fox (Red Hour Films)
Director/EP: Michael Showalter
Auspices: CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television in association with Red Hour Films
ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
Logline: After reluctantly returning to her tourist-trap hometown of Roswell, New Mexico, the daughter of undocumented immigrants discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a police officer: he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden his entire life. She protects his secret as the two reconnect and begin to investigate his origins, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their deepening romance.
Executive Producer/Writer: Carina Adly MacKenzie
Executive Producers: Chris Hollier, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank (Amblin Television); Lawrence Bender, Kevin Kelly Brown
Executive Producer/Director: Julie Plec
Based on the Roswell High book series, by Melinda Metz
Auspices: Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios in association with Amblin Television and Bender Brown Productions
ALL AMERICAN
Logline: When a rising high school football player from South L.A. is recruited to play for Beverly Hills High, the wins, losses and struggles of two families from vastly different worlds — Crenshaw and Beverly Hills — begin to collide. Inspired by the life of pro football player Spencer Paysinger.
Executive Producer/Writer: April Blair
Executive Producers: Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter
Director/Executive Producer: Rob Hardy
Producer: Robbie Rogers
Consultant: Dane Morck
Auspices: Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios in association with Berlanti Productions
LEGACIES
Continuing the tradition of THE VAMPIRE DIARIES and THE ORIGINALS, the story of the next generation of supernatural beings at The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. Klaus Mikaelson’s daughter, 17-year-old Hope Mikaelson; Alaric Saltzman’s twins, Lizzie and Josie Saltzman; and other young adults come of age in the most unconventional way possible, nurtured to be their best selves…in spite of their worst impulses. Will these young witches, vampires and werewolves become the heroes they want to be — or the villains they were born to be?
Executive Producer/Writer: Julie Plec, Brett Matthews
Executive Producers: Leslie Morgenstein and Gina Girolamo
Auspices: Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios, in association with My So-Called Television and Alloy Entertainment
