It’s impossible to name a girl gang cooler than the Pink Ladies. The crew from “Grease” — Jan, Marty, Frenchy and Rizzo — were fierce, funny and deeply protective of each other, and they gave us all major BFF goals. If you ever wished you could have a sleepover with the Pink Ladies or wanted a pink satin jacket of your very own, then mark your calendars for April 6.
That’s the day “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies,” a spinoff series and prequel to the 1978 cult classic, premieres on Paramount+. Starring Marisa Davila, Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso and Tricia Fukuhara, “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” will take place in 1954 (the original “Grease” took place in 1959).
The prequel has been in the works for several years, and it was originally intended for HBO Max. Originally called “Grease: Rydell High,” the musical spinoff was reworked and will now center around the Pink Ladies, including the events that led to their inception.
The series will still feature musical numbers, but it won’t all be froth and fluff. “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” will tackle issues like sexism, racism and, of course, what it means to be a “bad girl” or a “good girl” and how harmful those labels can be.
“Our characters will get to experience from a different lens and how those experiences overlap with others with a marginalized identity,” said Ari Notartomaso (who plays the role of Cynthia) during the show’s Television Critics Association panel in January. “I think we have the opportunity to represent another struggle that overlaps with things we’re dealing with today, like racism.”
Annabel Oakes — the writer, showrunner and executive producer of “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” — said she was inspired by the lives of real women who lived during the era and the issues they faced to craft the TV show’s storylines.
“I started calling every woman I know who went to school in the ’50s,” Oakes told Entertainment Weekly. “I started with my mom, then I called her friends, and then I called their friends and then I got a writers’ room and they all called their moms and friends and grandmas. We talked to a lot of women who grew up in the 1950s and were actually there. Women of the ’50s were the women who were out there in the ’60s breaking glass ceilings and boundaries.”
You can watch the just-dropped trailer for “Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies” below:
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