It’s been announced today that filming for the Grease prequel, Rise of the Pink Ladies, has officially begun. Originally titled Rydell High, the show seems to have shifted its focus to, well, the rise of the Pink Ladies. While this seems like a fun story, is it really necessary, though? After all, there’s already two Grease movies, and the second one is a known flop with few fans. Regardless of what we think, though, it’s happening, and it seems to have a few new faces in it.
While there isn’t any information on the characters yet, we do have a character list along with the actors who will be playing them.
Shanel Bailey (The Good Fight) will play Hazel, Marisa Davila (I Am Not Okay With This) is Jane, Tricia Fukuhara (Dante Falls) as Nancy, Jackie Hoffman (Search Party) as Assistant Principal McGee, Jonathan Nieves (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels) will be Richie, Ari Notartomaso (Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin) is Cynthia, Jason Schmidt (48 Hours) will play Buddy, Madison Thompson (Ozark) is Susan, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper (When They See Us) plays Wally and newcomer, Cheyenne Isabel Wells as Olivia.
The series will be ten episodes long, at least for this first season, and is being put out by Paramount Plus, even though it was originally announced as an HBOMax series. Rise of the Pink Ladies is set four years before the first movie and tells the story of what Rydell was like before the T-Birds and Pink Ladies ruled the school. The show will focus on a shift in the hierarchy and students who aren’t sure about the new change. You can expect a lot of fun musical numbers as well, because it wouldn’t be Rydell High without them.
Show creator Annabel Oakes (Atypical and Transparent) also penned the script and will serve as the showrunner. Along with Oakes, Alethea Jones will act as Director for the pilot plus two more episodes as well as being credited as an executive producer. Other executive producers of the show include Marty Bowen, Adam Fishbach, Erik Feig, Sammie Falvey, and Grace Gilroy. As for choreography and music, the show recruited Jamal Sims and Grammy nominee Justin Tranter, respectively.
Nicole Clemens, the president of Paramount Television Studios as well as Paramount Plus, had this to say about the show and the people working on it, “We are thrilled to unveil our new original series that will introduce an incredible cast of young stars in the making and electrifying musical numbers you will fall in love with. Annabel and Alethea have managed to brilliantly capture the spirit of the iconic beloved classic film which like Rise of the Pink Ladies, is both set in the past but relevant to the present.”