The CW Adapting DC Comics’ iZombie
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Ever since the popularity of Zombieland in 2009, zombies are firmly part of the current pop culture landscape. We’ve seen the success of zombie movies like World War Z and Warm Bodies, as well as zombies on TV such as In The Flesh and, of course, The Walking Dead. The CW recently acquired the rights to another zombie property, but this time around, it will be brought to you courtesy of the creators of Veronica Mars.
According to Deadline, Party Down creator Rob Thomas will re-team with Veronica Mars executive producer Diane Ruggiero to develop a new series called iZombie for Warner Bros. TV and the CW. It’s based on the comic writer Chris Roberson and artist Michael Allred created for DC Comics’ Vertigo subdivision in 2010.
iZombie will follow Gwendolyn “Gwen” Price, a med student who turns into a zombie, then takes a job in the coroner’s office to gain access to brains. Gwen reluctantly eats the brains to maintain her humanity and sanity. The show will also have a crime procedural aspect because the memories from the corpses haunt Gwen’s mind after she consumes them. She will team up with her medical examiner boss and a police detective to solve homicide cases. Once the cases are solved, Gwen is at peace until she has to eat another corpse’s brain.
You can see how this series could be appealing for the CW’s audience, especially for fans of Veronica Mars and Party Down. The premise sounds a bit absurd, but it definitely has the potential for some “case-of-the-week” TV storytelling. iZombie sounds a bit like Veronica Mars meets Warm Bodies meets Being Human and Wonderfalls.
Rob Thomas and Diane Rugierro will serve as iZombie‘s executive producers, along with frequent collaborators Danielle Stokdyk and Dan Etheridge. Rob Thomas and Diane Rugierro, who also wrote the upcoming Veronica Mars movie, will write the series’ pilot episode.
Along with iZombie, other networks getting into the zombie genre game are NBC with the resurrected Babylon Fields, cable network A&E with the remake of the hit French drama The Returned, and ABC’s midseason series Resurrection. Sooner or later we’re going to hit the zombie tipping point and the genre will get oversaturated with so many zombie properties in the market. But until then, audiences want more brains with their zombies. Excuse me, I mean, BBRRAAAIIIINNNSSSS!
Warner Bros. and DC Comics have big plans for the TV front, with their successful Arrow, a planned Flash spinoff, and the upcoming Gordon Batman prequel for Fox. They’re also developing a Constantine TV series for NBC, and Guillermo del Toro recently confirmed that DC is trying to create a cohesive DC Universe on the big and small screens. Their competition at Marvel Studios have seen moderate success with ABC’s The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Marvel also recently announced TV adaptations for five of their comic book properties including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and the mini-series The Defenders for Netflix in 2015. Needless to say, it’s a good rivalry to watch unfold on the big screen, TV, and, of course, in comic books.
While The CW didn’t announce when iZombie would premiere on their network, we’d expect to see it as part of the CW’s fall 2014 TV lineup.
