'The Valiant' Air Date News: Lesley Livingston's Female Gladiator Novel in Development on The CW
The CW will bring a female gladiator to the small screen. It will be adapting Lesley Livingston's novel "The Valiant" as a full-hour period drama series.
"The Valiant" novel follows a character named Fallon, a Celtic princess in the time of Julius Caesar who doesn't want to proceed with her arranged marriage. She leaves her home but ends up becoming a slave. She needs to compete as a female gladiator in order to earn her freedom.
It's still not clear whether the TV show will follow the book to the letter or if it will only take loose adaptations.
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Warner Bros. Television will produce "The Valiant" for The CW. The outfit tasked scribe Laurie Arent ("The Client List") to write the episodes, as well as Mary Beth Basile ("October Road") as executive producer.
Casting for the pilot will soon follow but the show will still have to earn a series pickup from the network for it to move forward and have a confirmed air date.
If "The Valiant" receives a series order, it will join other female-centered TV shows on The CW such as "Supergirl" with Melissa Benoist, "Jane the Virgin" with Gina Rodriguez, "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" with Rachel Bloom, and "iZombie" with Rose McIver.
The network's only period drama series "Reign" ended its run last June. It also featured a strong female character in a young Mary, Queen of Scots, which was portrayed by Adelaide Kane. "The Valiant" could then be a worthy replacement.
Livingston, who is based in Canada, published "The Valiant" just this February. The author is already working on a follow-up, "The Defiant," which is expected to hit store shelves in early 2018.
Livingston has written over a dozen young adult books. Her first novel "Wondrous Strange" received the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book of the Year recognition in 2010.
