Three years after we said goodbye to the five best friends of Rosewood, Pretty Little Liars is getting a reboot thanks to TV hit maker Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. TV is looking to revive the franchise with entirely new characters and an all-new story. Aguirre-Sacasa is set to write the script, but there is no news about original creator I. Marlene King’s involvement in the project since she left Warner for Disney’s 20th (formerly 20th Century Fox) TV last year.
No information has been revealed as to where the show will air, but it’s suspected HBO Max will get the honor. There has also been no word on if Disney will be making a bid to continue to air the reboot as PLL was formerly the biggest show on their networks.
In case the name Aguirre-Sacasa sounds familiar, he’s the genius behind Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Katy Keene.
News of a reboot comes as a shock to fans for a few reasons.
PLL already had two spinoffs that were both cancelled after one season. Ravenswood was based around the character Caleb (played by Tyler Blackburn) while bringing ghosts into the story line. Meanwhile The Perfectionists (starring Sasha Pieterse and Janel Parrish) gained instant popularity, featuring Alison and Mona as college faculty members involved in more trouble. Truthfully it was shocking The Perfectionists was taken off the air so soon, but it followed the finale perfectly and had so much potential.
Aguirre-Sacasa also had two spin-off shows fail miserably after a short time. Sabrina was cancelled after two seasons and a mediocre following of die-hard Riverdale fans eager for more drama within the Archie Comics universe. And despite aligning a beautiful cross-over/cross-advertisement, Katy Keene missed the mark and was cancelled after one season. Additionally, Riverdale has been plummeting in ratings in recent seasons. Is his track record going to work for a successful reboot?
Why do we need a reboot when the show just ended in 2017, especially after two spinoffs ultimately failed. The dead bodies from the original show aren’t even cold yet! It’s way too soon and literally nobody asked for it.
Part of what made Pretty Little Liars so popular was the set up of the original. Fans loved the casting and identified with the characters and their story lines. They also loved the books equally as much as the TV series, thus drawing in even more viewership than before. It was also one of the biggest shows that helped define the former ABC Family turned Freeform network and dominated TV ratings for the seven seasons they aired. It’ll be hard to recapture the same success, nor should the legacy be touched.
It makes sense why they have Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa writing the script and basically building a show from scratch based off of someone else’s hard work. He has one of the most popular shows for teens out right now and has managed to create numerous other shows under the same umbrella. He thrives creating dark, mysterious, confusing teen murder dramas. Clearly he knows what it takes to draw in fans, but only when someone else starts off a story… He literally has no original ideas and relies on the ground work being done before he works his magic.
The two shows already kind of mirror each other. From the murderous story lines to the limited involvement of parent supervision in their small towns, the worlds are definitely aligned. To me, Riverdale features a lot of the same plots and twists that PLL did. So maybe a reboot will collide both worlds in a dream collaboration project?
Regardless, Twitter is not having it. And neither am I.
Sadly, it’s unlikely the stars of the original series will return as regular cast members or even as guest stars. But it could introduce us to a new set of young actors… Or the same few cast members that always appear in Netflix type projects like Charles Melton. Regardless, I’m very curious how, why and when this will happen. I just wish we could start seeing some new, original stories on TV these days instead of the same recycled ones.
Whether this becomes a reality of not, do you think this reboot will work? Let us know in the comments below!
Featured image via Freeform Pretty Little Liars
The best part is proably the Riverdale twist.