Perhaps you've remained unaware — and it's totally fine if you did — that the classic, cult 1988 dark comedy "Heathers" was undergoing a reboot in the shape of a new TV series. Now, for those who were anticipating it and those who were fully in the dark, there's a brief teaser trailer giving the world its first real look at the small-screen adaptation of the movie that makes "Mean Girls" seem like a good-natured Disney romp.
With Grace Victoria Cox ("Under the Dome," "Twin Peaks: The Return") subbing in for Winona Ryder's Veronica Sawyer, the "Heathers" reboot lands in modern-day post-millennial Westerburg High complete an appropriately updated trio of Queen-Bee Heathers ruling the school. Melanie Field, Brendan Scannell and Jasmine Mathews pick up the roles of the school's reigning mean girls, injecting black and queer representation into the formerly all-white, all-straight lineup of Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker and Shannen Doherty (Doherty is also signed on to play an unnamed adult character in the series).
Given that and the ruling tastes of the age, these Heathers (and their fashions) hew more to the styles and attitudes often seen in Rhianna videos than the movie version's white-shouldered, big-haired looks. What's not different from the original is the inclusion of one of Ryder's classic lines.
Have a taste below.
Elsewhere, actor James Scully will step into Christian Slater's role as Veronica's sarcastic, quite possibly psychotic love interest.
How exactly showrunner Jason Micallef ("Butter") will cope with the suicide-tinged theme in light of the recent negative response to Netflix's recent "13 Reasons Why" or deal with the narrative demand that several of his main characters will have to die rather quickly within in the course of an episodic series aiming at multi-season pickups remains to be seen. Note that a recent musical version of "Heathers" made the off-Broadway circuit, inspiring much love but never a full Broadway run.
Like it or not, curious or not, you'll get your first chance to see the new take on Heathers when it debuts on the Paramount Network in 2018.
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