Amazon YA Drama 'The Wilds' Ordered to Series

The show is the second aimed at young adults that the streamer has picked up in recent weeks as it makes a play for the space.


Amazon continues to make a play for young-adult viewers with the pickup of a drama series called The Wilds.


The show, created by Daredevil writer Sarah Streicher, follows a group of teenage girls from very different backgrounds who survive a plane crash and are stranded on a deserted island. The streamer describes it as "part survival drama, part dystopic slumber party."


Sex and the City and The Carrie Diaries veteran Amy B. Harris has also come aboard The Wilds as showrunner. The project is a co-production of Disney's ABC Signature Studios, where Streicher has an overall deal, and Amazon Studios.


The Wilds is the second YA series Amazon has ordered in recent weeks, joining Panic from author and showrunner Lauren Oliver. Both shows were among a group of pilots that Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke ordered early in her tenure as she made a push into a space where rival streamers Netflix (13 Reasons Why, The Society) and Hulu (Runaways, All Night) have already established footholds.


Sources said that the third pilot in that group, College, is not moving forward. Its creator, Marja-Lewis Ryan, is the showrunner on Showtime's The L Word: Generation Q.


"We are thrilled to share this exciting original vision with our global audience,” Salke said Tuesday in a statement. "We are proud to be the home for this authentically voiced, high-stakes show brought to life by the talented Sarah Streicher, Amy Harris and our ABC Signature Studios partners."


Said Streicher, "Coming of age is not for the faint of heart. It can take as much grit and fire to survive our teenage years as it would to survive, say, on a deserted island. The Wilds grew from that notion, and it’s afforded me an opportunity to explore teenage-hood in all of its perils, joys and heartbreaks. I’m beyond thrilled that it’s found a home at Amazon.”


Along with Streicher and Harris, Jamie Tarses' Fanfare and Dylan Clark and Brian Williams of Dylan Clark Productions serve as executive producers on The Wilds. Susanna Fogel directed and exec produced the pilot episode.


Streicher is repped by Verve, Circle of Confusion and attorney Erik Hyman.