As series like American Horror Story and Black Mirror have returned the TV anthology series concept to prominence in recent years, it was probably inevitable that older anthologies would be ripe for the rebooting. Last month, Apple announced that Steven Spielberg will reboot Amazing Stories for its forthcoming content platform, and now, CBS will dust off the godfather of all other anthology stories: The Twilight Zone.
During a quarterly earnings call, CBS head Les Moonves announced that the network has plans to revive the classic sci-fi/fantasy/horror series for its CBS All Access streaming platform. And lest you think that it’ll be just another invocation of a classic property to draw eyeballs, CBS also announced that Jordan Peele (who’s been having the best 2017 possible in the wake of Get Out’s overwhelming success) will be overseeing the production through his Monkeypaw imprint. Marco Ramirez, an executive producer on Netflix’s Daredevil and The Defenders, will serve as the showrunner.
During its initial 1959-1964 run, The Twilight Zone became one of CBS’ standard-bearers for success, and is also notable for still consistently being one of the most terrifying things to ever air on television, even as audiences have become desensitized over time. While the network may not have the same cultural cachet as many of its new streaming competitors, CBS will look to make this new series into the kind of flagship program capable of converting the skeptics. The marketplace is currently flooded with genre fare, but the new Twilight Zone run will undeniably have an advantage just through legacy alone.
As of this writing, it’s unclear exactly when the new All Access series will go into production, but it’ll absolutely be one to watch in the coming months.
Twilight Zone is just one of several projects in the pipeline for Peele. He’s teamed with Spike Lee for the KKK crime thriller Black Klansman and is producing a horror drama for HBO along with a 1970s-era Nazi hunting series called The Hunt.
