Barnabas Collins Lives! Dark Shadows Leading Lady Tells All About the 2023 Reboot of the Supernatural Soap
Take a bite out of this Dark Shadows news because it really doesn’t suck.
Hollywood is going a little crazy rebooting every show imaginable these days, but sometimes studios overlook these hidden gems like ABC’s former daytime show, the now-cult classic Dark Shadows. The gothic drama delivered it all — vampires, time travel, parallel universes, and of course, dramatic romance — so why isn’t it on one of the streaming networks right now? Well, there might be some intriguing news on the horizon, thanks to Soaps.com’s recent interview with Kathryn Leigh Scott. She played Maggie Evans and the love of Barnabas Collins life, Josette du Pres, during her five-year run on the show from 1966-1970.
Scott shares that there is “a very good chance” Dark Shadows will make a return to TV under the leadership of executive producer and writer Mark B. Perry, known for his work on the original run of The Wonder Years and Party of Five. “Some of you may know him, he’s had a wonderful career in television, but he has written a new series and they’re shopping it. I think that there is… well, there’s a very good chance it could get picked up this year,” she says. “It would be on one of the streaming networks.”
Kathryn Leigh Scott, Dark Shadows, April 7, 1969.
Credit: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images.
The mere thought that Barnabas lives really warms our dark heart, and Scott makes a great point that the storylines would be “really relevant today to a new audience.” She believes Perry is the right man for the job because he “doesn’t have the [storyline and character] restrictions” that original creator Dan Curtis had with other attempted reboots over the years. “I think that he’s got much more latitude and he grew up loving Dark Shadows. He brings another element – something new, something making it fresh and vibrant for today’s audience,” Scott adds.
More: Days star shares vampire-movie news!
That, of course, begs the question: Is Scott going to be a part of the revival as Maggie or Josette… or a new Collinsport resident??? Well, she “cannot think of anything more wonderful” than “coming back to it now, 55, almost 60 years later.” Scott enthusiastically shares that she’s open to “playing some version of the characters” that she played on Dark Shadows, but “all grown up.” And we can’t wait to sink our teeth into a possible Barnabas-Josette reunion!
Don’t miss the full inside scoop from Scott about the rumored Dark Shadows revival and her thoughts on the popularity of the series in the video above. And then check out our fang-tastic look back at Dark Shadows over the years in our gallery below.
