NBC moves ahead with plans to redevelop Nancy Drew for a rebooted series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Are there any Hardy Boys or Harriet the Spy fans in the house? Back in the '80s and '90s, kids and young adult detective novels were all the rage. It used to be that you couldn't set foot inside you local library without tripping over a prepubescent boy or girl whose face wasn't buried in the pages of Nate the Great, The Babysitters Club, Basil of Baker Street or Encyclopedia Brown. Today, NBC has announced plans to develop a new series based on the iconic and best-selling novel series NANCY DREW, after CBS failed at getting a project based on the property off the ground last season.

Still attached to the project from its time at CBS are writers and executive producers Tony Phelan and Joan Rater and executive producer Dan Jinks, who was tasked with developing the CBS version. It's also being reported that CBS Television Studios is still attached to produce. So this is a group effort sort of deal, a collaborative passion project, if you will.

According to Variety, the new series follows the author of the most famous female teen detective book series who is thrust into a real-life murder mystery. In need of help, she turns to her two best friends from childhood, who were the inspiration for all those books, and the women who have a real axe to grind about the way their supposed best friend chose to portray them all those years ago.

In re-tooling the series for NBC, the powers that be plan to present audiences with an entirely new take from the CBS original. Variety reports that CBS' version would have cast PERSON OF INTEREST's Sarah Shahi as Drew, now an adult who works as a detective for the NYPD, where she investigates and solves crimes using her uncanny observational skills, all while navigating the complexities of life in a modern world. At this time, an official synopsis for the forthcoming reboot is not available.

What I can tell you is this … I'm glad they've scrapped that idea, because holy hell does it sound like every other police procedural on television. Personally, I'd rather see a reboot of Nancy Drew in the form of a film or Netflix series than an NBC presentation. What you do is you go a bit younger in your casting, and call both STRANGER THINGS actress Millie Bobby Brown and LOGAN's Daphne Keene. Sprinkle a little of that Riverdale noir magic (minus the show's relentless promiscuity, of course) on top and you've got yourself a guaranteed hit. Of course, this is just a pipe dream scenario.

No casting announcements have been made for the Nancy Drew reboot at this time. If you have any ideas for this forthcoming program, we'd like to hear them in the comments section below.