“Fate: The Winx Saga” is a new Netflix original series that is based on the Italian animated series “The Winx Club”.
Let’s find out some trivia and facts about the new live action series.
- Fate: The Winx Saga is a teen drama series
- The series is inspired by the Nickelodeon animated series Winx Club
- Winx Club was created by Iginio Straffi
- It is produced by Archery Pictures in association with Rainbow
- Rainbow is a studio co-owned by Iginio Straffi and ViacomCBS
- Fate was developed by Brian Young
- Young also acts as the showrunner and executive producer
- The first season premiered on Netflix on 22 January 2021
- Iginio Straffi first proposed a live-action version of Winx Club in 2011
- Then Viacom (owner of Nickelodeon) became a co-owner of his studio and started financing his projects
- Before approving production on the series, Straffi gained experience with live-action television shows
- He was working as a producer for Nickelodeon’s Club 57
- Principal photography for Fate eventually began in September 2019 in Ireland
- Early in production, Nickelodeon’s American crew members from the cartoon (including Bloom’s voice actress, Molly Quinn) met with the Fate production team and reviewed the pilot script
- Rainbow’s Joanne Lee also oversaw the show as an executive producer
- Apart from them, the crew behind Fate is entirely new to the Winx franchise
- The writers were recruited from teen dramas like The Vampire Diaries
- Abigail Cowen as Bloom, a 16-year-old fire fairy who was raised on Earth by human parents
- She’s a first-year student at Alfea and Aisha’s roommate
- She discovers that she’s a changeling
- Hannah van der Westhuysen as Stella, a fashionable light fairy and the princess of Solaria
- Unlike her suitemates, she’s a second-year student
- Precious Mustapha as Aisha, an athletic water fairy
- She’s a first-year student and Bloom’s roommate
- Eliot Salt as Terra Harvey, an earth fairy and Sam’s sister
- She is Flora’s cousin
- She was raised at Alfea but has trouble connecting with her suitemates, especially her roommate Musa
- Elisha Applebaum as Musa, a mind fairy who feels other people’s emotions
- She’s a first-year student and Terra’s roommate
- Danny Griffin as Sky, Stella’s ex-boyfriend and son of the late celebrated war hero Andreas of Eraklyon
- He was raised by Silva and is a second-year Specialist student
- Sadie Soverall as Beatrix, an air fairy who can manipulate electricity
- She’s a first-year student, trying to discover more about Alfea’s dark history
- Freddie Thorp as Riven, a second-year Specialist student and Sky’s best friend
- He’s romantically involved with Beatrix
- Eva Birthistle as Vanessa, Bloom’s adoptive mother
- Because of an incident where Bloom lost control over her powers, she’s covered in healed burn wounds
- Robert James-Collier as Saul Silva, the Fencing instructor at Alfea and Sky’s guardian
- He used to be friends with Sky’s father
- Eve Best as Farah Dowling, Headmistress of Alfea
- The idea for a live-action adaptation of Winx Club dates back to 2011
- Winx creator Iginio Straffi first proposed a live version in May 2011, several months after Viacom (owner of Nickelodeon) became a co-owner of his studio (Rainbow) and started financing his projects
- At the Ischia Global Fest in 2013, Straffi stated that he was still planning a production “with the Winx in flesh and blood, played by real actors. Sooner or later it will be done”
- At the time, Straffi had only worked on animated productions, so he transitioned his focus to live action over the next few years
- After working as a producer for Nickelodeon’s live-action show Club 57
- Straffi announced in March 2018 that Netflix would be making a young adult adaptation of Winx Club
- After a pilot episode was scripted, Nickelodeon’s American crew members from the cartoon met with the Fate production team and reviewed the script
- Rainbow’s Joanne Lee also oversaw the show as an executive producer
- Apart from them, the crew behind Fate is entirely new to the Winx franchise, and the writers were recruited from teen dramas like The Vampire Diaries
- Brian Young, who worked on seven seasons of The Vampire Diaries, is the creator and showrunner of Fate: The Winx Saga
- According to an interview with The Guardian, Young chose to “ditch the look” of the cartoon Winx fairies, who have big eyes and sparkling outfits
- He said, “Look, again, I’m a massive manga anime fan… but nobody looks like that”
- Lisa James Larsson and Hannah Quinn are directing the series
- Casting calls were held in August 2019
- The show’s filming began in Wicklow, Ireland in September 2019
- It ended on December 13
- The first season’s primary filming locations included Killruddery House, Ardmore Studios in Bray and Ashford Studios in Ashford
- Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 33%
- Based on 12 reviews
- With an average rating of 5/10
- The series received backlash over the casting of Applebaum as Musa, who was coded as East Asian and whose character design was based on Lucy Liu
- As well as the apparent replacement of Flora, who was coded as Latina and whose character design was based on Jennifer Lopez, with a new white character named Terra
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