The CW Is Planning Another Apocalypse With This New Project
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While I’m not a big fan of any of their programming, The CW earns some applause for opening up their young adult-skewed programming to allow for a variety of genres and stories over the past couple of years. Following in the footsteps of their low-rated sci-fi drama The 100, which began its second season last week, the network is developing another post-apocalyptic drama called The Magellan, in which the world turns into one big dangerous swimming pool. Just think of it as The Last Sailboat.
The Magellan takes place in a world where “a mysterious global cataclysm strands a group of students, teachers and crew on a Semester at Sea sailboat.” The entirety of Earth seems to be covered in water, so it’s the life of sailors for this crew, as they search for other life somewhere else on the planet. Their mission won’t be easy, of course, as everyone in the group must learn to work together to survive, while all the usual CW bullet points (love, family, and friendship) also rear their emotional heads.
The CW has granted a script commitment to The Magellan, based on the hit Spanish series El Barco (which is promoted in the picture above, just in case you thought I put a photo of random Spanish people up there). The pilot will be written by Jennifer Johnson, who will also executive produce alongside El Barco co-creator Daniel Ecija and Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop). Johnson served as a showrunner on The Following for a short time before she vacated the position in order to develop other shows. She’s written and produced series such as Lost, Alcatraz, and, most recently, Gang Related.
El Barco aired for three seasons from 2011-2013, and earned pretty solid ratings throughout its run. The format has been sold to 23 different countries, including the U.S., where subscribers of the Spanish network V-ME could have watched the original when it aired. Can we thank Robert Redford’s All Is Lost for getting Americans in the “fuck, we’re stuck at sea” mindset? Check out the trailer below.
This isn’t even the only sea-faring drama The CW has in development. They’ve also got Unnatural Selection, a reality-dodging series following Charles Darwin’s trips aboard the Beagle. The network also recently announced Shakespeare’s Sisters, a Mark Harmon-produced project focusing on William Shakespeare’s youth, with witches included.
Will The Magellan float, or does it need to be sunk before it gets too far out? Has anybody out there seen El Barco?
