The beloved '60s sitcom Bewitched is set to get a sparkling new reboot thanks to FOX and Sony Pictures Television, more than fifty years after the show wrapped. The hour-long reimagining of Bewitched is helmed by writer and executive producer Judalina Neira, best known for her work on The Boys and Daisy Jones and the Six, and by executive producer Doug Robinson. According to Deadline, the "heartfelt" reboot will focus on the love story of Samantha and Darrin before the events of the original show unfold.
"Though they come from two wildly different worlds – he's a human, she's a witch – for Samantha and Darrin, it's love at first sight," the outlet shared. "But in order to be together, they'll have to navigate their disapproving parents, walk a tightrope of cultural clashes, and bridge the divides between their families and worlds."
The original show ran for eight seasons from 1964 to 1972 on ABC and was created by Sol Saks. Bewitched followed a beautiful housewife, Samantha (played by Elizabeth Montgomery), who just so happened to be a witch. She was married to Darrin, a normal man, and the series documented the chaos of their lives together as she tried to balance her powers with being a wife and mother.
Many attempts at a reboot have been made over the years, including a spinoff about their daughter, Tabitha, that ran on ABC in 1977. Currently in the works is a live-action series based on a pre-teen Tabitha, helmed by Sony Pictures Television Kids. Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell starred in a 2005 Bewitched reboot, which saw an unusual spin on the original story of Samantha and Darrin.
The synopsis reads: "Movie star Jack Wyatt (Will Ferrell) has hit a rough patch in his career. Looking to make a comeback, he signs on to play the role of Darrin in a movie version of the popular 1960s sitcom Bewitched. Jack insists that an unknown is hired to play Darrin's better half, the beguiling witch-housewife Samantha, so the studio finds an up-and-comer named Isabel Bigelow (Nicole Kidman). Once shooting begins, though, Jack learns that Isabel was cast too well – since she actually is a witch."
Will reflected on his time filming Bewitched in an interview with Stephen Colbert, who also acted in the 2005 film. "Nicole Kidman's over there across the studio, and me and all the other people playing the writers are at video village 'watching' the first scene," Stephen recalled, before asking Will, "When the scene's over, do you remember what you came and said to us?"
"You came over to us because when the scene started and when [director Nora Ephron] said, 'Action,' we saw why Nicole Kidman was a movie star because the moment she called 'Action,' she flipped some switch. She became the most alluring and beautiful woman. She's a beautiful woman, but something preternatural happened."
He continued: "You walked over and you went, 'I couldn't remember any of my lines. I couldn't get out of her eyes. What the just [expletive] just happened out there?' And we all went, 'I don't know.'" Will joked, "It was like an alien being had come and told us 'Everything's going to be okay.'"