The CW Orders ‘Naomi’ Pilot
by Erik Amaya
It would appears the chances of Naomi joining the Arrowverse have gone up considerably.
Variety reports The CW has ordered a pilot of the potential program. Based on the DC Comics character created by Brian Micheal Bendis, David F. Walker and Jamal Campbell, the project comes from filmmaker Ava DuVernay and former Arrow writer Jill Blankenship. The proposed series will follow “a teen girl’s journey from her small northwestern town to the heights of the multiverse. When a supernatural event shakes her hometown to the core, Naomi sets out to uncover its origins, and what she discovers will challenge everything we believe about our heroes.” Sounds like it will be rather faithful to the source material and, perhaps, introduce the new DC Multiverse to the heroes of The CW.
The program is one of several DC properties in development at the network — a Black Lightning spinoff Painkiller and a Wonder Girl series focused on the new Future State Wonder Woman among them. The Naomi series also represents DuVernay’s third project with DC-published material. She is attached to direct a New Gods feature and helm several episodes HBO Max’s DMZ adaptation.
Should one or all of the Arrowverse pilots go to series, it will create a very different looking roster of shows in a few years time, both in terms of ethnic diversity and characters created after the 1950s. Although, with The Flash, Batwoman, and Legends of Tomorrow sticking around for at least one more year, its clear Earth-Prime will still be somewhat familiar. Also, it should be said, a pilot order is not a guarantee the series will be picked up. The various attempts at Supernatural spinoffs and the backdoor pilot for Green Arrow and the Canaries stand as proof that some ideas do not make it to the network’s schedule. See also: a recent attempt to revive Dark Shadows.
But, as it happens, The CW also ordered a reboot of The 4400 straight to series, so hope literally springs eternal.