Freeform Doubles Down on Superheroes, Adapting Brit Show Misfits For an American Audience
Anglophiles listen up and prepare to be…confused. British cult favorite superhero/sci-fi show Misfits is being adapted for an American audience over at Freeform, the network that’ll be bringing us live-action Cloak & Dagger.
This has apparently been in the works for quite some time. Chuck writer-producer Josh Schwartz teamed up with Misfits creator Howard Overman on a pilot for the new series back in 2012. While the basic premise of a group of young people getting superpowers is the same, there’ve been some changes. They’re no longer teens, but 20-somethings (one of the rare instances in which a show skews older!), and rather than a freak storm granting them powers, it’s some kind of freak chemical. Freeform hasn’t released much more information than that.
I’m not sure how to feel about this. I’m a huge fan of Misfits (well, I’m a huge fan of the first three seasons of Misfits when we had most of the original cast, and we weren’t subjected to transphobic storylines), and a big reason for that is that the show was an answer to an American genre. It was an innately British take on superheroes, and that’s why it was so refreshing. I’m not sure how an American adaptation of a British show commenting on an American genre would even work. I’m all for cutting Howard Overman mad checks for his creation, and I’m thrilled that he was involved at least in this pilot…but I don’t necessarily have high hopes.
Any other Misfits fans out there? What do you think of this development? Will you be watching?
(via Spinoff Online, image via E4)
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