Witches defend America in Motherland: Fort Salem, premiering tonight

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Premiering tonight, March 18th, on Freeform is the series Motherland: Fort Salem, which is set in 

an alternate America where witches ended their persecution nearly 300 years ago by cutting a deal with the U.S. government to fight for their country. The story follows three young women from basic training in combat magic into early deployment. In this world, the traditional roles of gender and power are flipped, with the more dominant women on the front lines fighting looming terrorist threats that are familiar to our world — but with supernatural tactics and weapons. 

A new trailer for the show can be seen embedded above.

The series stars Ashley Nicole Williams, Taylor Hickson, Jessica Sutton, Sarah Yarkin, Amalia Holm, Demetria McKinney, Kai Bradbury, and Lyne Renee. 

Motherland: Fort Salem was created by Eliot Laurence, who also serves as showrunner. It's executive produced by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Kevin Messick of Gary Sanchez Productions, as well as Maria Maggenti, Steven Adelson, and Laurence.

The Hollywood Reporter's review said that the show is at its best when it gets "wildly ambitious and gorgeously otherworldly" and features things like "flying drug trips" and "strength-enhancing orgies". Then it says the show is rarely at that level, but that certainly sounds interesting.  

I won't be able to catch Motherland: Fort Salem as it airs, but I'd like to check it out sometime down the line. The first episode begins tonight at 9pm Eastern.