The Greatest American Hero Reboot Is Coming To ABC With A Female Lead

The Greatest American Hero became a cult hit back in the 1980’s, but now the hero is on the way back to television, just not in the way anyone expected.

ABC is set to revive the series and has made a pilot commitment to the reboot. It will be a single-camera half hour project (via Deadline), and while it is going to have some of the comedic tones of its predecessor, it will also differentiate itself in some big ways. The lead of the original series, Ralph Hinkley, was played by William Katt. For the new series, an Indian American female character named Meera will be the lead.

Meera is a 30-year-old from Cleveland and specializes in drinking tequila and singing karaoke. Great skills in the social realm, sure, but not exactly heroic. Her life will change when aliens give her a super suit to protect the planet, and, well, you can imagine how smoothly that goes.

The new Greatest American Hero is being helmed by writer producer Rachna Fuchbom and Nahnatchka Khan, who will co produce the series with ABC as part of their Fierce Baby production company.

The original Greatest American Hero series ran for 3 seasons from 1981 to 1983 and focused on Hinkley’s attempts at adapting to his powers. ABC actually canceled the show before it could air the final four episodes, but later released them as part of the DVD collections. At one point the rights were purchased by NBC, who were planning a spinoff of the show called “The Greatest American Heroine”. This was produced during the final season of Greatest American Hero but didn’t air until years later.

The rights to Greatest American Hero are now owned by 20th TV, and they also previously tried to reboot the show. In 2015 they teamed up with Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Tawnia McKiernan on a version of the show, which made its way to Fox for a pilot but went no further.

No casting decisions have been made on the lead, but we’ll keep you updated as news comes available.