The world's greatest swordsman is returning to the small screen. Zorro, the legend of the masked vigilante who fights corruption in Spanish California, is getting the reboot treatment at Disney+, and the series showrunner is an Emmy-winning Game of Thrones veteran.
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The new series, starring Wilmer Valderrama (aka Fez from That '70s Show), is billed as a reboot of Disney's classic Zorro TV show, which aired from 1957 to 1959. Dubbed a "bold reimagining" of the '50s Western, the new incarnation follows Diego de la Vega (Valderrama) as he takes on the mantle of the rapier-wielding Zorro, a wealthy playboy by day and a vigilante by night. Sound familiar? Zorro was one of the inspirations for the creation of Batman in the 1930s.
Dubbed "America's first true superhero," the fictional character of Zorro was dreamed up by an American pulp novelist in 1919. Silent film star Douglas Fairbanks played the caped crusader in the 1920 classic The Mark of Zorro, and the character has appeared regularly in film and TV ever since — including Antonio Banderas' memorable turns in The Mask of Zorro (1998) and The Legend of Zorro (2005), co-starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Zorro, which will stream exclusively on Disney+, is decidedly more modern than the usual period piece treatments. According to the official logline, the show is "an epic adventure rooted in California's rich and diverse history, bursting with humor, sinister intrigue, romantic entanglements, and swashbuckling thrills."
The new take on Zorro, which is Spanish for "fox," is in good hands. According to Deadline, Bryan Cogman, who executive-produced Game of Thrones, will serve as writer and showrunner on the new series. Cogman won four Emmy Awards for his work on Thrones. And he's no stranger to dealing with well-established genre intellectual property, having penned the screenplay for Disney's upcoming live-action adaptation of 1963's Arthurian legend The Sword in the Stone.
A big-budget, mainstream Zorro adaptation has been a long time coming. But by the looks of the talent Disney's lined up so far, it will have been well worth the wait.
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