The CW has released key art for the first season of Nancy Drew, their forthcoming TV adaptation of the beloved mystery series. The show will launch in October, and stars Kennedy McMann in the title role. It centers, much like the network’s mega-hit Riverdale, around a murder in a small town, and is shot similarly stylishly. Like Veronica Mars, it centers on a teen sleuth who is suffering with backstory and family drama, making it both darker and more complex than the novels, which are written with younger readers in mind.
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McMann, like a lot of kids of her generation, grew up surrounded by Nancy Drew and her more “boy-friendly” counterparts the Hardy Boys.
“I read all the books, I played all the games. It’s been a part of my life for so long, it’s truly a dream come true,” McMann told ComicBook.com.
While pilots like Batwoman and Katy Keene were being developed with a lot of eyes on them since they were spinoffs of popular, existing CW series, Nancy Drew was relatively quiet until after the pilot had been completed and the network started to get good buzz back. That means that a lot of fans don’t know whether to expect a version like what they have seen before, something a bit more like Riverdale, or something else entirely.
“It’s a bit of a thriller,” McMann explained. “Obviously it’s a mystery so there’s lots of detective work that you can see. But it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and we don’t sink into melodrama. These are friends who are smart and witty and funny, so there’s snark, there’s some romance. It checks all the boxes.”
McMann admitted that she felt pressure developing a pilot that was not only based on a beloved character, but had been tried and failed a few times recently. After a ’70s series that was a hit and a short-lived ’90s series, CBS has been trying to make Nancy Drew work for a while. A 2002 pilot failed to make it to series, and so became a TV movie starring Maggie Lawson (who would go on to star in Psych for 8 years and two movies and counting, so she did alright). Nancy Drew was released as a feature film in 2007, starring Emma Roberts. In 2015, and then again in 2017, CBS was developing Drew, a more hard-edged procedural version of the character’s adventures.
“It was a little intimidating, because I was like ‘they’ve tried this so many times. I’ve got to be the one to do it!’” McMann admitted. “We were all on our toes and I know CBS felt the same way. CBS Studios have had the rights for a while. So it feels really good to be able to fulfill those dreams for all of us.
Nancy Drew comes from Chuck and The OC co-creator Josh Schwartz and Runaways producer Stephanie Savage. Set in the summer after her high school graduation, 18-year-old Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) thought she’d be leaving her hometown for college, but when a family tragedy holds her back another year, she finds herself embroiled in a ghostly murder investigation — and along the way, uncovers secrets that run deeper than she ever imagined. The series will premiere this fall on The CW.
