Fans of Desperate Housewives, brace yourselves, because there’s set to be more gossip, heartbreak, backstabbing and bonding on Wisteria Lane, with a reboot of the Noughties hit currently in development.
The show is being developed at Disney’s Onyx Collective, with Scandal star Kerry Washington on board to executive-produce the project, currently titled Wisteria Lane, after the fictional street on which the original series was set.
Written by The Flight Attendant’s Natalie Chaidez, the spinoff, which was first reported on by Deadline, is promised to be a “fun, dark, sexy soap/mystery”, set among five different frenemies who live on a picture-perfect cul-de-sac with the same name as the original series.
“On the surface, all the Wisteria neighbours are living the dream: beautiful homes, gorgeous families, shiny SUVs in the driveway,” according to the initial report.
“But behind those white-picket fences and smiling Insta posts are SECRETS.”
The original suburban melodrama series, created by Marc Cherry and starring Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Nicolette Sheridan, Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross, became a huge hit in 2004. It followed the lives of five neighbours who start uncovering dark secrets on Wisteria Lane.
It ran for eight seasons on ABC from 2004 to 2012, gaining 38 Emmy nominations, while Huffman took home the award for best comedy actress in 2005.
Sources have told Deadline that original showrunner Cherry was not part of the pitch but is aware of the project and could be involved in it in some capacity.
The news comes after some of the show’s original stars have expressed their desire for a reboot after Desperate Housewives’ 20th anniversary last year.
Longoria – who played former top model Gabrielle in the series – previously said she’d be “the first to sign up” for a remake, but said series creator Cherry would need some convincing.
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“He feels like there’s no ‘why now?’. For the sake of a reboot, he wouldn’t do it,” she explained.
In November, Cherry told People that “about 700,000 people” had enquired about a spin-off series, which he said he would be open to, though he said it might be set in the Sixties.
“I would probably want to do the idea maybe in an earlier decade, because the character I miss writing the most is actually Wisteria Lane,” he said. “That was the most fun playground anyone in the history of television has ever had.”
“I know that street like the back of my hand. When someone shoots a commercial on that street, I know it instantly, because I know all those houses, I know the geography. It was such a fun place to write for,” he added.
“And there’s times when I go, ‘You know what? I wonder if I could write Wisteria Lane in like, 1966.’”
The idea came as a surprise to fans, given that a prequel series set in the Sixties would likely not star any of the original stars in their much-loved roles.
“If you do a reboot, you have to have a really good artistic reason to do it,” Cherry said. “And at some point, I’ll sit down with someone and go, ‘OK, let’s talk about if there’s a good enough ‘why’ to do it.’”
The cast for Wisteria Lane has not been announced. There are reportedly no plans to include original cast members in the series.
