Amazon Studios has just ordered ‘The Power’ which is based on Naomi Alderman’s best-selling novel. This science-fiction series has already been translated into over 35 languages and is now getting the live-action treatment. In charge of the series on Amazon’s side will be Reed Morano (The Handmaid’s Tale’) and Leslie Mann (‘This Is 40’) as executive producers. Morano is also set to direct the series. Alderman is joining the production to help put the script together “with a team of all-female writers.” Joining Alderman is Whit Anderson (‘Ozark’), Stacy Osei-Kuffour (‘Watchmen‘), and Rebecca Levene (“The Hollow Gods” Trilogy).
As to what the story is about, Amazon Studios has released quite an extensive description sharing the following:
The world of The Power is our world, but for one twist of nature. Suddenly, and without warning, all teenage girls in the world develop the power to electrocute people at will. It’s hereditary, it’s inbuilt, and it can’t be taken away from them. Coming alive to the thrill of pure power: the ability to hurt or even kill by releasing electrical jolts from their fingertips, they rapidly learn they can awaken the Power in older women. Soon enough, nearly every woman in the world can do it. And then everything is different.
The subversive, multi-stranded narrative follows a series of characters including Allie, a vulnerable American foster kid who reinvents herself as a faith leader; Roxy, the daughter of a London crime boss, who revels in her new abilities; Tunde, a Nigerian journalist reporting on seismic global change; and Margot Cleary – Lopez (Leslie Mann), Mayor of Seattle, loving wife and doting mother to three kids. At least that’s what her official campaign website would tell you.
Margot is an American politician on the rise and until now, not only a woman in a man’s world but one with a questionable taste in jackets according to online trolls. Vital, charming, and incredibly smart, Margot comes to see that power resides with strength rather than authority. As her career takes flight, it’s her husband Rob and daughter Jos who privately feel the effects of her success most keenly; for one of them, where previously there was conflict now comes a greater understanding, and for the other where there was love, comes hurt and betrayal.
Over the first season, the series will follow its cast of remarkable characters from London to Seattle, Nigeria, to Moldova, as the ‘Power’ evolves from a tingle in teenagers’ collarbones to a complete reversal of the power balance of the world. The Day of the Girls has arrived – but where will it end?
This will be a fun new twist on female empowerment, and it shall be interesting to see how it plays out and what will play out differently from the novel.
Are you excited to check out ‘The Power’? Do you have any actresses you’d like to see play any of these parts? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
