William Shakespeare, until now the sole domain of theater dorks, will finally become young, hip, and relevant as the hero of an upcoming series on The CW. And unlike the laughable attempts of your Baz Luhrmanns and your 10 Things I Hate About Yous of years gone by, this time Shakespeare’s street cred will be cemented by the addition of witches—currently the second-hottest TV trend after inexplicable remakes—to the story.
Called Shakespeare’s Sisters, the series is described as having “the grit of HBO’s hit fantasy drama Game of Thrones [and] the wit and heart of Shakespeare in Love,” meaning it will be as sexy and violent as The CW’s Standards and Practices department will allow, yet still manage to be utterly forgettable. Set in the ‘90s (the 1590s, but still), the story will revolve around the presumably brooding young playwright’s rise to fame with the help of three witches and “the most powerful woman in the world,” Queen Elizabeth I. Current NCIS star and former Sexiest Man Alive Mark Harmon has signed on to produce and presumably serve as hunk consultant, with Jane the Virgin‘s Brad Silberling—who’s been very busy lately—on board to direct and executive produce.