Gotta admit, I did not see this one coming. Deadline has the news that Netflix is developing a Bat Boy series—yes, that Bat Boy, of Weekly World News in the ’90s fame—from Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Riverdale, pictured above) and Joe Tracz (One Piece).
If anyone is going to make Bat Boy fly, it’s probably these two. Aguirre-Sacasa co-created Riverdale and created Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and thus has spent considerable time in the supernatural-high-school-wacky-drama trenches. Tracz is co-showunner of Netflix’s popular One Piece, also a writer and producer on Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and was a writer on A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Deadline notes that while yes, there was a Bat Boy musical, this new series is entirely unrelated. Here’s how they describe the series:
In the coming-of-age series adaptation, the titular character is a teen named Bobby Bates. With the help of fellow teens Charisma and her weird sister Olive, Bobby re-enters mainstream society after living in seclusion on the outskirts in the remnants of a long-dissipated carnival. When Bobby enrolls at Cypressville High, he embarks on a journey of self-discovery while attempting to find his place among his new peers and society and trying to solve a mystery bubbling up from the Florida swamps. All that while rocking his half-bat-like features like sharp teeth and pointy ears — oh, there’s also the small matter of his need for human blood. Think, Edward Scissorhands meets Nightmare Alley-ish.
I feel like that “ish” is doing a lot here.
Weekly World News CEO/editor-in-chief Greg D’Alessandro will be one of the show’s producers, should it fly up and out of the development phase and onto Netflix subscribers’ screens.
