‘Bewitched’ Reboot Not Moving Forward at ABC

Bewitched is not coming back to life at ABC — at least not any time soon. The network passed on the latest iteration of the pilot, co-written by Black-ish creator Kenya Barris.

According to Variety, the pilot was “rolled to off cycle,” meaning it will not be developed during the traditional pilot season. The outlet reported it is still in “active development” though.

“I thought it was an incredibly smart rethink and re-telling of that story,” ABC president Karey Burke told reporters during her executive session at the Television Critics Association winter press tour earlier this week. “Kenya is peerless in the television business as far as I’m concerned…[Kenya and I] decided together that the script wasn’t quite there.”

The new script featured a black female witch who falls in love with a white mortal man. In the original 1964-1972 series, the witch was played by Elizabeth Montgomery, who fell in love with a mortal man played by Dick York and later Dick Sargent. It was created by Sol Saks and was later turned into a 2005 movie starring Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell.

The executive producers on the new series were John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment, and would have been produced by ABC Studios and Sony Pictures Television.

This is the latest miss for Barris, who jumped ship at ABC to join Netflix before his contract was up at the alphabet network. During his time there, he only had success with Black-ish and the Freeform spin-off Grown-ish. His other projects, like Bewitched, were not picked up.

While ABC passed on Bewitched, the network picked up a pilot starring Sons of Anarchy‘s Katey Sagal. In Nana, Sagal plays an overbearing mother-in-law who moves into an overprotective dad’s home to help raise the granddaughters she barely knows after his wife dies.

Hamilton breakout Leslie Odom Jr. will also star in an untitled pilot written by Saladin Patterson, reports Variety. His project is based on the lives of progressive pastors who juggle the affairs of a ministry and parenting their four children. It is inspired by the lives of pastors Touré Roberts & Sarah Jakes-Roberts.

Outside Black-ish, Barris also wrote the hit movie Girls Trip and the upcoming Shaft with Samuel L. Jackson and Regina Hall. He will also write the Coming to America sequel and is developing Besties for Freeform.

Besties centers on a pair of half-sisters who learn they are related after taking an online genetics test. American Idol singer Jordin Sparks will play one of the sisters.

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