Teens of the 1990s will have fond memories of the TV adaptation of Francine Pascal’sSweet Valley High, the series that ran for four seasons between 1994 and 1997 and starredBrittany Daniel, Cynthia Daniel, Amy Danles and Ryan Bittle among others. Now it appears that the series is about to get the reboot treatment by The CW, who arecontinuing their numerous revivalswith a brand new take on the original series of 181 novels, with a series that is simply titledSweet Valley.
Reported byDeadline, the series will be coming fromJosh Schwartzand Stephanie Savage, who were developers on the hit seriesGossip Girl, and will be a joint effort between Paramount TV Studios and CBS Studios. This is not the first time a reboot of the popular 90s series has been discussed, with it being previously suggested that Chernin Entertainment – who act as producers on the reboot – were looking to develop a feature film from the franchise back in 2017. With the likes ofSaved By the Belland other 90s properties being big name revivals at the moment, it is not surprising thatSweet Valley Highhas arrived on someone’s hit list.
The pilot script for the reboot is being written by Ashley Wigfield, who is the sister ofSaved By The Bellshowrunner Tracey Wigfield, and comes with the logline of, “Sweet Valley is the town everyone dreams of growing up in. And there’s no better example of that promise than Elizabeth Wakefield. But when her missing twin sister Jessica miraculously returns, it reignites a lifelong rivalry. It falls to new girl Enid Ruiz to discover that someone (or something) is pulling all the strings, but can she convince the twins that putting their personal war aside is the only way to drag Sweet Valley’s dark roots into the California sunshine?”
The YA book series was a big hit through the 80s and 90s, with the last of the 181 novels being released in 2003. With a lot of scope to work with, and almost 30 years gap since the previous series, a new take on the world ofSweet Valley Highcould find a new audience, while also playing to the same nostalgic air ofSaved By The Bell’s well received resurrection on Peacock, and the team behind the reboot are certainly no strangers to creating hit television shows.
Before being linked toSweet Valley,Schwartz and Savage have worked as executive producers on The CW’s other revival series ofDynasty, as well asNancy Drewand itsTom Swiftspin-off, as well as the HBO Max hitGossip Girlreboot and the upcomingCity on Firefor Apple TV+. Wigfield has previously worked with the due onMarvel’s Runawaysand Hulu’sLooking For Alaska.
There is currently no word on casting or an expected release date for the new series, but with currently schedules we can probably expect to see it arrive sometime later in 2023, and watch for more news as it develops.
