Despite the power of New Girl star Hannah Simone (and also, yes, a super-powered alien suit with a missing instruction manual), it turns out that ABC’s Greatest American Hero reboot will be denied the chance to go walkin’ on air. Simone announced that the show won’t be going forward yesterday morning, expressing her disappointment that the network has passed on the chance to feature “the first brown female superhero on TV.”
As a remake of a show that’s now mostly remembered as the genesis of a top-tier Seinfeld gag, Greatest American Hero always felt like something of a longshot. That being said, it’s TV in 2018; MacGyver’s on TV somehow, and CBS just announced that it’s taking its Magnum P.I. reboot to series (after, uh, passing on a female-led version from a few years back. Probably a coincidence.)
Simone is getting ready to wrap up seven years on New Girl; she tweeted a much more positive message to followers earlier today, perhaps realizing that she never thought she could feel so free (from regular TV obligations, or whatever).