NBC Orders Pilot

Just two weeks ago it looked like Warner Bros. Television’s planned Wonder Woman revival had stalled after David E. Kelley’s script failed to find a home at a network. But tonight Deadline reports the surprise news that NBC has picked up the pilot.

Announced in October, the modern-day reboot would return the DC Comics character to live-action TV for the first time since 1979, when she was famously portrayed by Lynda Carter.

Following some unease in December, when Kelley — the award-winning creator of such TV series as Ally McBeal, The Practice and Picket Fences — revealed he hadn’t “necessarily committed” to the superhero project, the pilot script was shopped around early this month. According to Deadline, NBC passed at the time because it was awaiting the arrival of new president of programming Bob Greenblatt, and “couldn’t commit to the type of license fee that the studio was seeking in order to do the show Kelley had envisioned.” With Greenblatt now at the helm, and Kelley’s new comedy-drama Harry’s Law debuting strong, the network snapped up the pilot.

However, Wonder Woman fans still may have cause for concern. If Deadline’s information is correct, Kelley’s take on the nearly 70-year-old superheroine will differ dramatically from her portrayals in the comic books or the ’70s TV series: Here she’ll be Diana Prince, a vigilante crimefighter and successful corporate executive in Los Angeles who tries to “balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.”

Here she’ll be Diana Prince, a vigilante crimefighter and successful corporate executive in Los Angeles who tries to “balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.”

Here she’ll be Diana Prince, a vigilante crimefighter and successful corporate executive in Los Angeles who tries to “balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.”