There’s never been a shortage of TV witches, but there’s a distinct boom lately with shows like Charmed, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
Freeform, home to Siren and Shadowhunters, is jumping on the trend with yet another addition to its “edgy-YA-supernatural” arsenal. It’s called Motherland: Fort Salem, and it sounds bonkers.
Here, read the description for yourself, courtesy of Deadline:
Set in an alternate America where witches ended their persecution 300 years ago by cutting a deal with the U.S. government to fight for their country, Motherland: Fort Salem follows three young women — two of them played by Taylor Hickson and Jessica Sutton — from basic training in combat magic into early deployment. In this world, the traditional roles of gender and power are flipped, with the more dominant women on the front lines fighting looming terrorist threats that are familiar to our world — but with supernatural tactics and weapons.
The maths there doesn’t quite add up; as my colleague Beth Elderkin immediately pointed out, 300 years ago was 1719, long before there was anything resembling “the U.S. government,” but several years after the frenzied era of the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. Perhaps this alternate America also has some alternate history to go with its present-day applications of “combat magic” in the war on terror? (And while we’re asking questions, do the terrorists also have supernatural powers? They must, otherwise why would Salem bother training a military in the first place?)
Deadline notes that Motherland: Fort Salem already has a 10-episode order, and will also star Amalia Holm and Demetria McKinney, with a third role being recast after the show’s pilot.
The trade also quotes Freeform’s president, Tom Ascheim, as saying the network is “so excited to be able to tell this story rich with female empowerment, complex storytelling and an incredibly creative canon.” We’d be a little more excited if the creative team for this celebration of girl power wasn’t so dude-heavy, between creator/showrunner Eliot Lawrence (Claws); executive producers Will Ferrell (yes, that one), Adam McKay (Vice), and Kevin Messick; and pilot director Steven Adelson, who’s also an executive producer along with Maria Maggenti. But, of course, the series just got picked up, so maybe there’ll be a little more diversity behind the scenes once it swings into production.
Freeform also dropped a li’l teaser already, which tells us nothing other than one of the younger characters is excited and another is sullen as hell. Also, the American flag has gotten an appropriately witchy makeover in this alternate reality.
No word yet on exactly when Motherland: Fort Salem is headed to Freeform or any Australian streaming services.