New ‘Greatest American Hero’ Reboot Lands at ABC With Female Lead
Believe it or not, The Greatest American Hero is getting yet a third chance at a reboot. A brand-new take on the 1981 Stephen J. Cannell classic is coming to ABC, tweaking the premise to include an Indian-American female lead.
Where most recently Phil Lord and Chris Miller were producing a second pilot with Dope writer-director Rick Famuyiwa and Cannell’s daughter for FOX, Deadline reports that ABC has landed the third pilot with Fresh Off the Boat writer-producer Rachna Fruchbom and Nahnatchka Khan’s Fierce Baby. The original William Katt role will shift to an Indian-American woman, the outline for which lies below:
Written by Fruchbom, the re-imagining of Greatest American Hero centers on Meera, a 30-year-old Indian-American woman from Cleveland whose talents include tequila drinking, karaoke and not much else. Then some aliens entrust her with a super suit to protect the planet, and the world has never been in more unreliable hands.
For those unfamiliar with the original two-season series, ABC’s Greatest American Hero centered around inner-city teacher Ralph, who discovers a superhero suit that grants him superhuman abilities. Misplacing its instructions, Ralph grows to hate wearing the suit, as he learns to wield its powers through trial and error. Ralph was also aided by a government handler with his own agenda, and wrestled with either remaining a superhero or using the suit for his own good.
You can check out the original clip below, but will The Greatest American Hero finally get off the ground with a casting tweak?
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