EXCLUSIVE: Zorro is headed to the CW. The young-skewing network has put in development a gender-swapped reimagining of the classic masked vigilante character, from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, writer-director Rebecca Rodriguez, Sean Tretta (Mayans M.C.) and Ben Siverman and Howard T. Owens’ Propagate. CBS Studios, where Propagate has a deal, is the studio.
This is a new incarnation of the project, which was in development at NBC during the 2020-21 cycle, with Tretta as a new addition to the brother-and-sister writing team of Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez.
Co-penned by the trio and to be directed by Rebecca Rodriguez, in Zorro, a young Latinx woman seeking vengeance for her father’s murder joins a secret society and adopts the outlaw persona of Zorro. I hear the story by Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez was already in place when Tretta, who has an overall deal at CBS Studios, came on board earlier this cycle to write the script.
Tretta, who also will serve as showrunner, and Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez executive produce with Silverman, Owens and Rodney Ferrell for Propagate, along with Geoff Clark and Eric Bromberg, John Gertz for Zorro Property, Inc., and Jay Weisleder.
Propagate originally set out to develop a TV series re-imagining of Zorro with a female protagonist in 2019 as one of the company’s first projects under its first-look deal with CBS Studios. The idea’s first incarnation, written by Alfredo Barrios Jr., was set up at NBC, as was the 2020-21 with Robert and Rebecca Rodriguez, which also had Sofia Vergara attached as an executive producer. She is no longer involved in the project.
Robert Rodriguez was attached to direct The Mask of Zorro and cast Antonio Banderas as the title role before leaving the feature project. In TV, he currently serves as an executive producer-director on Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett. He previously developed and executive produced the series adaptation of his movie From Dusk Till Dawn for his TV network El Rey and also executive produced the Spy Kids animated series offshoot for Netflix. He recently directed an episode of Disney+’s The Mandalorian.
Rebecca Rodriguez’s recent directing credits include episodes of HBO Max’s Doom Patrol, NBC’s Debris, TNT’s Snowpiercer and Showtime’s The Chi.
Tretta has served as a co-executive producer on Mayans, M.C. His other previous writing-producing credits include Syfy’s 12 Monkeys and Hunters.
