Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone Reboot Greenlit at CBS All Access

CBS green-lights Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone reboot for their CBS All Access streaming service. The major broadcast networks and media companies have been itching to get in on the streaming trend by launching their own streaming platforms, which would enable them to pursue original content that may not otherwise work through a typical release. CBS is one of the first broadcast networks to launch their own platform, with Disney planning to debut theirs in 2019.

CBS All Access officially launched in 2014, but it wasn’t until this year that their subscriber base really started to take off, thanks to the debut of Star Trek: Discovery. And now, the network is looking to add to that base by bringing back the iconic science fiction TV series, The Twilight Zone, originally created by legendary screenwriter Rod Serling – who also narrated the series – in 1959. The Twilight Zone was an astounding success, and it stayed on the air for five seasons (consisting of 156 episodes). The series went through two revival periods: one in 1985 and again in 2002. Although the second reboot wasn’t particularly successful, CBS plans on bringing back the series at least one more time.

Variety reports that Get Out director Jordan Peele, The Defenders producer Marco Ramirez, and X-Men producer Simon Kinberg have been given the green light by CBS to move forward with their planned revival of The Twilight Zone. The upcoming reboot has been ordered to series, with Peele, Kinberg, and Ramirez serving as executive producers and collaborating on the series premiere episode. Ramirez, who recently served as showrunner on Netflix’s The Defenders, will potentially shepherd The Twilight Zone as the reboot’s showrunner.

In addition to penning the series premiere’s teleplay and working on laying the groundwork for the rest of the series, the next step in bringing The Twilight Zone back onto the small screen is choosing their new host. Serling narrated the original series, but Charles Aidman and Robin Ward narrated the first revival in the mid to late 1980s, and Forest Whitaker narrated the first and only season of the show’s second revival in the early 2000s. Finding the right person for the job may be as vital as the stories themselves.

Considering that The Twilight Zone reboot is moving forward on television, that begs the question, what will happen to the planned movie reboot? The Twilight Zone: The Movie was somewhat successful when it released in 1983, which is why Warner Bros. has been trying to reboot the film for years. Matt Reeves initially signed on to helm the project but left shortly after to direct Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. At the moment, Falling Skies scribe Christine Lavaf is working on the script. And who knows, The Twilight Zone TV revival may actually work in Warner Bros.’ favor.

CBS All Access’ The Twilight Zone does not yet have a premiere date.