“Dear Diary, my teen-angst bullshit now has a body count,” says Veronica Sawyer in the 1988 film “Heathers.”
Paramount Network’s television remake of the classic high school film has been in turmoil for the past year. Originally intended as a 10 episode season to be aired in the Spring of 2018, the show was indefinitely postponed following February’s Parkland school shooting.
The show, much like the original film, focuses on three students named Heather, the cool clique of the school, as Veronica and her boyfriend JD kill the Heathers and frame it as suicide. While the original featured Winona Ryder as Veronica and three white, preppy females (including Shannen Doherty) as the Heathers, the remake will have the Heathers as one gay student, an overweight girl and female student of color, reflecting on the changing dynamic of high schools since the 80’s.
The fifth episode of the series apparently opens with a first person POV shooter game that takes place in a high school. According to the network, the scene has been changed so it doesn’t take place within a school.
The first season was originally set to be 10 episodes, with the finale featuring the school blowing up in an explosion (like the original planned ending for the 80’s film) but Paramount found it too controversial. Now the first season will consist of the first 9 episodes and end on a cliffhanger, omitting the planned ending.
The new cast of Paramount Network’s remake of “Heathers.” Photo courtesy of NME.com
Before the first season of “Heathers” was put on hold, a second season was announced. It is reported to take place in the 1700s and focus on Marie Antoinette. It sounds like they decided to scrap the idea of a school setting, after the seemingly endless controversy surrounding the first season.
The nine episodes of the first season of “Heathers” will be available to stream on the Paramount Network app on October 22, while two episodes will air each night on the Paramount Network, starting on the 25.
Check out the trailer for the original “Heathers” below.
Will you be checking out the television reboot of “Heathers” or do you think it’s best to leave it dead?
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