We’re heading back to the prairie, folks. Netflix announced on Wednesday (Jan. 29) that Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie book series is getting the TV series treatment yet again.
The series of autobiographical novels, the first of which was published in 1932, inspired a Little House on the Prairie TV series that first aired on NBC in 1974.
However, the streamer promises a new take on the beloved story with the help of showrunner and executive producer Rebecca Sonnenshine, whose past credits include The Vampire Diaries and The Boys.
“I fell deeply in love with these books when I was 5 years old,” Sonnenshine said in a statement shared by Netflix’s Tudum. “They inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker, and I am honored and thrilled to be adapting these stories for a new audience.”
Curious about what the new spin on Little House in the Prairie is all about? Here is everything we know so far about Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie reboot.
What is the Little House on the Prairie reboot about?
Netflix described the “transformed adaptation” of Wilder’s books as “part family drama, part epic survival tale, and part origin story of the American West.”
“The series will offer a kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs of those who shaped the frontier,” the description continues.
Who is in the Little House on the Prairie cast?
Netflix did not share any casting information in the announcement, but we’ll be sure to update this post with more information as it comes in.
The original Little House on the Prairie starred Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue Anderson, Lindsay and Sidney Greenbush, Dean Butler, Richard Bull, Katherine MacGregor and Victor French, among others. A young Jason Bateman also notably starred on the show in Season 8.
Who is Rebecca Sonnenshine?
Sonnenshine is the executive producer and showrunner of the new Little House on the Prairie reboot at Netflix. Per IMDb, among her producing credits are Bunny (2000), Reversion (2008), The Vampire Diaries, Outcast, The Crossing, Archive 81 and The Boys.
Other executive producers on the reboot are Joy Gorman Wettels for Joy Coalition, Trip Friendly for Friendly Family Productions, Dana Fox, and Susanna Fogel, per Netflix. According to the streamer, Trip has a special connection to the material, as his father, Ed Friendly, served as a producer on the 1974 Little House on the Prairie TV series.
Thus, it’s a “life-held dream” of Trip’s to “carry on [his] father’s legacy and adapt Wilder’s classic American stories for a 21st-century audience in a way that brings together fans of both the books and the original television series,” per Netflix.
