ABC has ordered up four new drama pilots, including projects from Kevin Williamson, the Agent Carter showrunners, and Reese Witherspoon, Variety reports. Executive produced by Agent Carter showrunners Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters, The Death Of Eva Sofia Valdez is described as “Macbeth with a Cuban twist.” The pilot was written by Charise Castro Smith, who executive produces alongside the Carter duo. The Death Of Eva Sofia Valdez follows a woman, Eva Sofia Valdez, who immigrates to Miami and becomes a successful entrepreneur and champion of immigrant rights. But her thirst for success as well as threats from her past start to catch up with her, and her supposed American Dream starts to crumble.
ABC has also officially ordered the pilot for the time-traveling series Time After Time, which comes from Warner Bros. Television and Williamson, who will executive produce. It’s based on a novel by Karl Alexander, who imagined a world in which the bestselling sci-fi author actually owned a time machine. The series will take that concept and run with it, spinning an adventure tale about a young H.G. Wells barrelling through time as if he were a character in one of his own stories. Williamson’s The Following was cancelled last year, and he remains an executive producer on The Vampire Diaries though he no longer writes for the CW show. We also would like to take this time to recall the fact that Williamson wrote on and executive produced the short-lived CW series The Secret Circle in the hopes that repeated mentions of The Secret Circle will one day magically bring The Secret Circle back to life.
But alas, ABC has not picked up a Secret Circle revival. Instead, it has picked up the pilot for Spark, written and executive produced by Michael Cooney and developed by ABC Studios. Spark is set in a world that runs only on gas and coal and is ruled by two rival families, until one smart and rebellious young woman invents something that threatens to bring both sides down. Okay, but does it have teen witches?
Finally, also from ABC Studios comes an untitled drama executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea. The pilot was written by Meaghan Oppenheimer (We Are Your Friends) and follows a Dallas divorce attorney who starts to lose control of her life when her damaged love addict of a sister shows up. She brings along emotional baggage and family secrets—not to be confused with a secret circle.