Taylor Russell, who tussled with extraterrestrials in five episodes of TNT's “Falling Skies,” will next play Judy Robinson in Netlfix’ 10-episode “Lost In Space” reboot.
The actress, who also played actress Lark Voorhees in 2014’s “The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story,” is the first to be cast in the project.
Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless are the writers behind the Netflix reboot of CBS’ 1960s space opera, which followed a family of scientists who couldn’t figure out how to get back to Earth.
Sazama and Sharpless’ big-screen writing credits include “Dracula Untold” (which garnered positive reviews from 22% of critics polled by the Rotten Tomatoes website), “The Last Witch Hunter” (15%) and “Gods of Egypt” (16%).
This is by no means the first attempt to revive Irwin Allen’s iconic Space Family Robinson franchise.
A slightly underrated 1998 movie version starred Gary Oldman as Dr. Zachary Smith and William Hurt as Dr. John Robinson.
NBC had toyed with a TV sequel, though that idea died with the 2002 loss of the great Jonathan Harris, who was to reprise the role of Dr. Smith.
The perfectly terrible 2003 “The Robinsons: Lost in Space” reboot pilot was directed by John Woo (“The Killer,” “Mission Impossible II”) for The WB, but failed to snag a series order despite having been scripted by Doug Petrie, who did much better work for “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and now serves as showrunner on Netflix’s “Daredevil.”
Find TV Line’s exclusive on the matter here.
