The second I got to know the majesty that is Gina Rodriguez on Jane the Virgin, my first thought was: There needs to be a Carmen Sandiego TV show, and she needs to play Carmen! Now, it seems that all my dreams are coming true! Partly.
Last year, we got word that Rodriguez would be voicing the thief with a heart of gold in an animated series for Netflix, and that news was exciting enough! According to Deadline Hollywood, that is still happening, and we can expect the Carmen Sandiego animated series to drop in 2019.
However, Netflix is working in partnership with publisher and learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who owns the rights to Carmen Sandiego, on the whole brand, and they have other plans as well! It was announced today that, in addition to voicing Carmen in the animated series, Rodriguez will also be playing her in a live-action feature film for the streaming service!
She will produce Carmen Sandiego through her I Can and I Will productions alongside Kevin Misher (whose company, Misher Films is producing another upcoming Rodriguez project, Miss Bala) and Caroline Fraser (head of HMH Productions and Executive Producer of the Carmen Sandiego Netflix original series and feature film). There is also a line of books scheduled for release in 2019 from HMH that will be timed to the premiere of the animated series!
I’m so thrilled all this is happening! Several years ago, I wrote an essay called “Who In the Hell is Carmen Sandiego?” for the Mad Norwegian Anthology, Chicks Dig Gaming (you can check out a video of me doing a reading of it here, if you so desire). In it, I talk about the potential for Carmen Sandiego to be a fascinating, nuanced, Latina anti-hero in the vein of a Tony Soprano or a Walter White (but obviously for a younger audience). To see that possibility unfolding now is hugely exciting!
I still think that Carmen would make an amazing protagonist for an ongoing, live-action TV series. I’m totally down to write you that pilot, Netflix. Just gimme a holler.
(image: Netflix)
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