In 1972, Warner Bros. Television premiered
on ABC a rather unique take on the American Western story. Its protagonist was
a Chinese-American exile from the Shaolin Temple, who fled China with a price
on his head to Old West-era America to find his American half-brother, using
his martial arts skills to help the defenseless against outlaws and oppressors.
“Kung Fu” starred the late David Carradine, who once revealed that his role was
originally proposed for Bruce Lee, who in turn remarked that he conceptualized
the show and that Warner Bros. stole his idea. Whatever the case, “Kung Fu”
became a classic that spawned several spinoffs, and now The CW is picking up
its reboot pilot.
The Hollywood Reporter tells us that The CW has ordered to pilot
the long in-development reboot of the classic martial arts western series “Kung
Fu.” The reimagining of this show is being executively produced by none other
than Greg Berlanti of “Arrow” and “Arrow-verse” fame, while the creative team
will be from NBC crime drama “Blindspot,” which has been announced to end at
its fifth season, though no date for it was announced following the season 4
finale in 2019.
When it was said that “Kung Fu”
would be reimagined, that was no understatement. For one thing, the male exiled
Shaolin priest portrayed by David Carradine will be a woman instead, though she
will still be Chinese-American. The reboot was initially tackled by FOX TV in
2018 before it was passed over to The CW, which started its development anew on
November of last year. “Blindspot” writer Christina M. Kim will work on the storyline
while that series’ show-runner Martin Gero joins Berlanti as executive
producer. All three are collectively involved in the NBC show.
While The CW is expecting to put
the pilot episode of “Kung Fu” on their lineup sometime this year, it is looking
to be a tight fit considering that the network has renewed all of its ongoing
series that were not explicitly on their last seasons, such as most of the “Arrow-verse”
but the original show. “Kung Fu” will be in contention for a place in the
programming with three other series: “Republic of Sarah” from “Elementary”
writer Jeffrey Paul King, new “Arrow-verse” spinoff “Green Arrow and the
Canaries,” and a prequel to post-apocalyptic sci-fi show “The 100” entitled “Anaconda.”
It has been quite the busy time for Greg Berlanti, who counts “Kung Fu” as his
fourth series order for the packed 2020-21 TV season.
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