Written by Natalie Chaidez (The Flight Attendant), Wisteria Lane is described as a fun, sexy, darkly comedic soap opera/mystery in the vein of Desperate Housewives (pictured), set among a group of five very different friends and sometimes frenemies who all live on a picture-perfect cul-de-sac called Wisteria Lane.
On the surface, all of Wisteria’s neighbors are living the dream: beautiful homes, beautiful families, shiny SUVs in the driveway. But behind those white picket fences and cheery Insta posts, there are big SECRETS.
Desperate Housewives starred Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross, and, for the first five seasons, Nicollette Sheridan as five women—mostly friends—who live on Wisteria Lane and begin to uncover dark secrets after their neighbor Mary Alice Young commits suicide.
Chaidez is executive producing Wisteria Lane, along with Washington and Pilar Savone via their Simpson Street, and Stacey Sher (Into the Badlands) via her Shiny Penny. It’s unclear whether Washington will appear on the series. 20th TV, which recently acquired ABC Studios’ successor to Desperate Housewives, ABC Signature, is producing.
The sale of Wisteria Lane comes on the heels of Desperate Housewives’ 20th anniversary last October, which sparked a new wave of nostalgia and reboot rumors.
Desperate Housewives creator/executive producer Marc Cherry was not part of the pitch, but is aware of the project and may be involved in some capacity, sources said. In November, Cherry admitted that “about 70,000 people” had asked him about a reboot, citing fan passion and interest in revisiting the show, 13 years after its eight-season run on ABC ended.
The cast has also received numerous inquiries. Longoria said earlier this month that she would be “the first person” to sign on for a Desperate Housewives reboot. There are currently no plans to bring any characters from the original series back to Wisteria Lane.
While speculation about a possible Desperate Housewives sequel — a revival, reboot, sequel, spinoff, or other offshoot — has been swirling for over a decade now, this marks the first real attempt to expand the franchise.
Keeping the iconic setting from the original show makes sense — while most exterior locations for the show use a mix of exteriors from different locations, Wisteria Lane is an actual street built on the Universal lot. Though the exterior set was known as Colonial Street for decades, it was extensively modified for Desperate Housewives and has since taken on a life of its own. The street remains virtually unchanged from the show, remains a top tourist attraction and part of the Universal Studios Tour, and has been used in countless series and commercials since.
