Now that Grimm is winding down its run, NBC is looking into replacing it with another cop show that uses supernatural elements…and THR reports they’re looking at adapting the Image/Top Cow property Witchblade. Sony Pictures Television holds the rights and is working on a pilot with Caroline Dries (The Vampire Diaries) as executive producer and Brian Young (same show) as head writer. Marc Silvestri, Witchbrade’s co-creator, would also be involved.
This is the third attempt at rendering the comic in live-action form, and if you count the anime from last decade, it’s the fourth attempt at a show overall. In most adaptions Witchblade follows Sara Pezzini, a tough sarcastic New York policewoman who, after busting a crime ring one night, winds up having a stolen artifact attach itself to her wrist. She has been chosen as the Wielder of the Witchblade, a living magical weapon that grants its bearer special abilities and throws her (because, like the Slayer, it is always a her) into the age-old battle of good vs. evil. Now Sara not only has the criminal underworld to fight, but a supernatural underworld as well.
Witchblade first came to TV in the form of a TNT crime drama starring Yancy Butler as Sara, which lasted two seasons. A Witchblade anime was produced in Japan a few years later, using a different character. There was an attempt at making a movie adaption in 2008, but it did not get off the ground. From what little details we have about the new version, it sounds a lot like the original except Sara will be working from San Francisco, not New York City.
It’s also worth noting that Witchblade started out as a very, very 90’s comic book aimed at the teenage male market, with the prime gimmick being Witchblade’s organic armor that had to rip Sara’s clothes off in the process of grafting onto her. The TNT series never used this element, and it’s not likely a show on NBC would use it either.
The Witchblade comic ended its run in 2015, but if another TV series were to get on the air, it would probably be revived quickly.
