Freeform — the US network formerly known as ABC Family, but now with licence to be more racy than anything with the word “Family” in it — is developing a new drama that sounds completely nuts. Maybe in a good way? It involves witches, warfare and an alternate-history timeline — and its exec producers include Adam McKay and Will Ferrell.
It’s called Motherland and it’s written by Eliot Laurence, the same scripter who penned Welcome to Me, which starred Kristen Wiig as a very unbalanced lottery winner. The description, via Deadline, is totally worth sharing in its entirety because WHAT?
Motherland is described as an epic military fantasy 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. The project is set in contemporary times where young women conscript at 18 and receive basic training in combat magic at a base called Fort Salem. The show follows three young women from basic into early deployment. In this world, the traditional roles of gender and power are flipped. Women are on the front lines fighting looming terrorist threats that are familiar to our world, but their tactics and weapons are supernatural.
We surely hope Motherland works its way through the TV development obstacle course and eventually gets a big fat series order. Because it could potentially be the most amazing show ever — or jaw-droppingly campy and terrible. (Fort Salem? Combat magic?) Either way, we would like to see it on the airwaves ASAP.