‘A League of Their Own’ gets a TV series on Amazon
The iconic female sports movie, “A League of Their Own,” now has a series that’s set to premiere on Amazon Prime and we’re all for it.
This anticipated series, which is helmed by queer creator and star Abbi Jacobson together with writer Will Graham, is about the all-women’s baseball league while the men were away fighting during World War II.
The 1992 film by Penny Marshall starred Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Rosie O’Donnell, Tom Hanks and pop legend Madonna, who came up with the accompanying single, “This Used to be my Playground.”
‘A League of Their Own’ gets a queer vision
The movie and the succeeding TV series is based on the real-life all-women’s baseball, the Rockford Peaches, and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
This show is set to feature several queer characters, including a Black transgender character who shows up during the series.
Aside from Jacobson (who plays Carson Shaw), the show features Chanté Adams (as Max Chapman), Roberta Colindrez (as Lupe), D’Arcy Carden (as Greta), and Kate Berlant (as Shirley Cohen).
Other cast members include Gbemisola Ikumelo (as Clance), Kelly McCormack (as Jess), Priscilla Delgado (as Esti González), Melanie Field (as Jo Deluca), and Molly Ephraim (as Maybelle Fox).
Also joining the cast is Nick Offerman as their coach, Casey “Dove” Porter. O’Donnell will also guest star as Vi.
A jump-off point for the TV series
According to the creators, this isn’t a straight adaptation of the 1992 film and is set to take “a deeper look at race and sexuality.”
“28 years ago, Penny Marshall told us a story about women playing professional baseball that up until then had been largely overlooked. We grew up obsessed with the film, like everyone else,” Graham and Jacobson said in a statement.
They added they approached Sony with the idea of retelling “a new, still overlooked set of those stories.”
“With the help of an enormously talented team of collaborators, an amazing cast, and the devoted support of Amazon to this project, we feel beyond lucky and excited to get to bring these characters to life,” they declared.
They further promised: “It took grit, fire, authenticity, wild imagination and a crackling sense of humor for these players to achieve their dreams. We’re hoping to bring audiences a story with all of those qualities.”
Other details about ‘A League of Their Own’
To drum up enthusiasm about the series, they released character cards that look like baseball cards for some of the show’s players.
The series is set to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival this June.
Meanwhile, the series is set to tell parallel stories about the white women baseball players who are jockeying for slots in the women’s league.
Particularly, Chapman is shut out and has to play with the Black male league.
For more about the series, check out the trailer below: