Amazon MGM Studios has been developing its live-action She-Ra series for so long that we first covered it in 2021, when it felt awfully close on the heels of the 2021 finale of Netflix’s perfect She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Now, three years later, the new take on She-Ra has a writer attached—and it’s a surprising and interesting choice. Variety reports that Heidi Schreck has signed on as writer and executive producer.
Schreck is the writer of What the Constitution Means to Me, which was a Pulitzer finalist as a play, and was later filmed and presented as an Amazon Original film with the Broadway cast—which includes Schreck as the star (pictured above). She’s also written episodes of Nurse Jackie, Billions, and I Love Dick. She has a stack of awards, including three Obies, the Horton Foote Playwriting Award, and the Hull-Warriner Award from the Dramatists Guild.
None of this really screams “Fantastical superpowered princesses, up next!” but that’s part of what makes it intriguing. This new take on She-Ra is reportedly entirely unconnected to the animated series; the previously announced logline says it’s “an epic fantasy series about an orphaned young woman who leads a revolution to save her planet from annihilation.”
One can only hope it still has some lightness, and isn’t a super-serious, gritty, Game of Thrones-ed up She-Ra. Director Nicole Kassell has a considerable breadth of experience (she’s directed episodes of Watchmen, The Leftovers, and The Americans, among others) and producer Robin Sweet’s resume includes time on Castle Rock, Better Call Saul, and Outer Range. DreamWorks Animation is also producing the live-action show.
