Meet the new Nancy Drew who is coming to television
Image: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit / NBCUniversal Television Distribution
We once described Nancy Drew as the Hermione Granger, Katniss Everdeen and Selena Gomez of the 1970s. The teen sleuth had been around as a literary character since the Great Depression, but in 1977, the precocious detective made the leap from page to screen when The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries premiered on ABC.
Pamela Sue Martin initially played the role of Nancy Drew, later replaced by Janet Louise Johnson. The actresses, along with Hardy Boys stars Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy, became Tiger Beat pin-ups for tweenagers.
Three decades later, Emma Roberts, niece of Julia Roberts, portrayed Drew in a Hollywood reboot.
Now, a new Nancy Drew is coming to screens. Well, two of them, technically.
Newcomer Kennedy McMann, who has just two small television credits to her name, including a 2018 episode of Law & Order: SVU, will pick up the magnifying glass in a Nancy Drew pilot for the CW network. The pilot comes from creator-producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, best known for Gossip Girl (and their reported upcoming Star Trek series about Starfleet Academy). That's McCann in the image up top.
According to details on Deadline, this Nancy Drew will start off as 18 years old, cracking cases in the summer following her high-school graduation.
However, before that adaptation hits eyeballs, another new Nancy Drew will make her debut. Warner Bros. is slated to release its movie Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase this spring. Sophia Lillis, best known for her role as Beverly in the recent reboot of Stephen King's It, tackles the title role in that flick.
Hopefully, you held on to those old Nancy Drew novels.