From lavish prequel Oz the Great and Powerful to the beloved Wizard of Oz of 1939, L. Frank Baum’s fantasy classic has inspired a great many adaptations, but none quite like NBC’s Emerald City.
Fraught with development woes at the outset, for the longest time it looked certain that the network had pulled the plug on its dark reimagining for good, only to pull a U-turn a few months later with a straight-to-series order. David Schulner (Do No Harm, The Playboy Club) was brought in to write and executive produce the ten-episode season which, as you can glean from today’s shimmering reveal trailer, takes more than a few cues from HBO’s Game of Thrones.
With a cast toplined by Adria Arjona (Person of Interest) as Dorothy Gale, Vincent D’Onofrio as the Wizard and Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the spineless Scarecrow, Emerald City certainly isn’t lacking in potential, but over the years we’ve witnessed many “modern and dark reimaginings” fall prey to lacklustre ratings.
Scream and Sleepy Hollow spring to mind as more recent examples that continue to hold their place on the airwaves despite middling reviews, so it’ll be interesting to see how the Arjona-fronted series fares early next year. Perhaps the time is right though for a new rendition of L. Frank Baum’s fantasy classic? Especially now that Hollywood, overcome with nostalgia, has been repackaging scores of existing properties and turning them into TV shows. Time will ultimately tell, but after watching this first trailer, you can color us intrigued.
Emerald City will whisk viewers off to the fantastical realm of Oz on Friday, January 6.
In the blink of a tornado’s eye, 20-year-old Dorothy Gale and a K9 police dog are swept into a world far removed from our own – a mystical land of competing realms, lethal warriors, dark magic and a bloody battle for supremacy. Starring Vincent D’Onofrio (Daredevil, Jurassic World) as the guileful Wizard and directed by the visionary Tarsem Singh across three European countries, this is Oz completely reimagined – a place where familiar characters show up in fresh, unexpected ways, and where an unsuspecting young woman holds the fate of kingdoms in her hands. And as Dorothy navigates this dangerous world and uncovers her true destiny, we’ll see there’s no place like… Oz.
