The CW has given straight-to-series pickups to “Kung Fu” and “Republic of Sarah.”
The two projects will join the network’s 2020-21 season along with “Walker” starring Jared Padalecki and “Superman & Lois” starring Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch.
“Kung Fu,” a female-led reboot of the 1972 series starring David Carradine and created by Ed Spielman, moved to The CW from Fox in November. The series will star Olivia Liang (pictured above), Kheng Hua Tan, Shannon Dang, Jon Prasida, Eddie Liu, Gavin Stenhouse, Gwendoline Yeo and Tzi Ma.
Here is the logline: “A quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice…all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.”
Christina M. Kim executive produces and writes. Other executive producers include Martin Gero for Quinn’s House, and Greg Berlanti, David Madden and Sarah Schechter for Berlanti Productions. Hanelle Culpepper directs and serves as co-executive producer. It’s produced by Quinn’s House and Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television.
“The Republic of Sarah” stars Stella Baker, Nia Holloway, Luke Mitchell, Izabella Alvarez, Hope Lauren, Ian Duff, Forrest Goodluck, Landry Bender and Megan Follows.
Here is its logline: “Faced with the destruction of her town at the hands of a greedy mining company, rebellious high school teacher Sarah Cooper utilizes an obscure cartographical loophole to declare independence. Now Sarah must lead a young group of misfits as they attempt to start their own country from scratch.”
Jeffrey Paul King writes and executive produces along with Marc Webb, Mark Martin, and for Fulwell 73, Jeff Grosvenor and Leo Pearlman. Kat Candler directs and executive produces. The project is a production of CBS Television Studios.
The series orders follow yesterday’s news that The CW has acquired a handful of streaming shows that were canceled on other networks with plans to re-air them for the first time on broadcast television, including DC Universe’s “Swamp Thing,” CBS All Access’s “Tell Me a Story,” CBC’s “Coroner” and BBC Studios’ “Dead Pixels.”
The cast of “Kung Fu” has already had a Zoom meeting together. Actor Tzi Ma posted a screenshot of the session on Twitter Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/tzima8/status/1260368917437878272