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Greatest American Hero reboot gets a twist

The Greatest American Hero is returning, and this time she's an Indian-American woman.

In 2015 news emerged of a remake of 1981 hit The Greatest American Hero, which starred William Katt as a school teacher who found a superhero suit with powers he struggled to control.

At the time it was under the watch of writer-director Rick Famuyiwa (Dope) plus Phil Lord & Chris Miller (21 Jump Street) and director Tawnia McKiernan, daughter of original creator Stephen J. Cannell.

Now the project is headed to pilot as a single camera series but from a different team, with an unexpected take…. the central character will be Meera, an Indian-American woman from Cleveland whose talents include tequila drinking, karaoke and not much else. Then some aliens entrust her with a super suit to protect the planet, and the world has never been in more unreliable hands.

The new take comes from writer-producer Rachna Fruchbom (Fresh Off the Boat) to be co-produced by ABC Studios.

FOX and 20th TV previously attempting a version with writer Rodney Rothman.

Source: Deadline

9 Responses

  1. The haze is clearing, the synapses are trying to link, do I hear “Believe It Or Not” by Joey Scarborough and what’s this about Perry Mason’s secretary’s son? Too late it’s all gone!

  2. I love how the mere suggestion of re-writing a lead character in a rehash of what always was a lazy, one-joke, inoffensive, & slightly memorable show as a non-white female gets so many hackles up… ;)

    Calm down guys, you can’t catch cooties through the television. Well, not unless you’re watching Sky News…

    1. With the succes of Wonder Woman, plus Super Girl on CW and the way that there has been a female Captain America (1st: Shannon Carter) for almost 20 years in comics (1998), while in current Marvel Comics it’s Danielle Cage (U.S.Avengers #1 onwards). The time is likely right in my view to go in this direction (comic fans will accept it), it could very well play off the fact that there are those female Superheroes that have been around for that long.

      Who knows it may even end up being a continuation of the original and play off that as you say one-joke, maybe the Aliens pass the suit on because they think the original (Katt) is too old for it at 60. They could even make a joke of it being a woman, plus if you look at the darker type series Jessica Jones, she is reluctant in her role as a Hero, so again things to play off.

      1. Oh, defs – I’ve got absolutely no problem with it, apart from the general one of producers/networks taking the lazy way out by remaking a mildly-cherished show from the audience’s formative years instead daring to do something slightly new.

        And I can think of a dozen ways the writing/casting could play with the premise; e.g. “teacher as secret hero” was an age-old trope anyway, so why not tweak the outraged-sadbro-“it’s-PC-gone-mad!” segment of the audience with an even more unlikely “American Hero” – a feckless, immigrant, female one? ;)

        I’d call that brilliant if I thought they could pull it off ;)

        1. Yeah they could come up with something new, however I just feel why not do this again when we are in a world of wall to wall superhero related content, whether it’s Free To Air, Streamimg or the Movies it’s there (some may say on overload). Yes I liked the original as well, then again like you say some see it in context of it being their formative years, for me not so much as I was 19/20 to 22 years old when it first came out being born in May1961.

  3. Call it something else but don’t call it Greatest American Hero. The charm of that show was the naivete of William Katt’s character paired with Robert Culp’s streetwise character. I dont understand the gender switch except that this seems to be the norm now.

    1. The charm of the show was an American Everyman gifted superpowers. But an American Everyman doesn’t have to be a blonde haired white man. Without the title there is no point in making it, they are looking for a concept and name that people will remember so people will check it out in the age of Peak TV. Advertisers want to target younger women, and a broader audience (it can be hard to attract young men away from their computers and Xboxes). It only becomes a problem when its every show because shows are being shut down by social media campaigns e.g. Banished and Constantine (though Constantine probably wouldn’t have survived anyway).

  4. Geez. How about instead of trying to hitch a ride on the popularity of a previous hit they let these obvious not remakes but completely new stories stand on their own.

    Oh, and the obligatory ‘oh no, not another show given the WFSJW’ comment goes here.

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