Genre favorite Gina Torres will head up the cast of ABC’s vampire pilot ‘The Brides’, created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (‘Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’). Torres recently made a guest appearance on Aguirre-Sacasa’s CW hit ‘Riverdale’. ‘The Brides’ will be produced by Aguirre-Sacasa and Greg Berlanti, via Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television. Maggie Kiley, who has also worked on ‘Riverdale’, is directing the pilot.
Aguirre-Sacasa originally developed ‘The Brides’ for NBC back in 2015, but it was not picked up. The show will focus on the Brides of Dracula, characters that have been presented in most adaptations of Bram Stoker’s famous novel, but have rarely been developed beyond their depiction as blood-hungry succubi.
Via Deadline:
Written by Aguirre-Sacasa and directed by Maggie Kiley, The Brides, a sexy contemporary reimagining of Dracula, is a family drama with a trio of powerful female leads at its heart. With strong horror elements, The Brides is a vampire soap about empowered, immortal women and the things they do to maintain wealth, prestige, legacy — and their non-traditional family.
Torres will portray Cleo Phillips, the leader of the trio of vampires, although it is said that her connection to her “sisters” is “dangerously fraying.” She is currently a New York real estate tycoon, but in her past life, she was an actual queen, until the death of her husband and her being turned into a vampire by Dracula. She is described as still having “imperious” and “queenly” qualities, as she is suddenly facing a mysterious new business rival.
Torres may be best known among genre fans for her role as Zoë Wash on ‘Firefly’/’Serenity’. Some may even remember her for her recurring role as Nebula on ‘Hercules: The Legendary Journeys’, which she followed up with the sci-fi series ‘Cleopatra 2525′. She later went on to roles on ’24’, ‘Alias’, and ‘Westworld’ among many others. She had the role of Jessica Pearson on the USA series ‘Suits’, and she headlined her own spin-off series ‘Pearson’, which only lasted for one season.
Seeing as how her character is named Cleo and is a former queen, could Torres be playing the Cleopatra? If so, that is an odd coincidence considering one of her earliest roles was on the series ‘Cleopatra 2525’.
At any rate, ABC has only ordered a pilot for ‘The Brides’, so check back for more info as it becomes available.
