Gothic horror saga Dark Shadows won't rise from its crypt on The CW, which quietly dropped plans for a modern-day sequel series.
The CW ordered a pilot for Dark Shadows: Reincarnation in September 2019, but according to TVLine, no pilot was made and development efforts are dead.
Dark Shadows: Reincarnation would have brought the story of the Collins family into the present day. The original Dark Shadows was a half-hour daytime drama on ABC that aired from 1966-1971. It was created by the late director and producer Dan Curtis, who specialized in horror films and TV movies such as The Night Stalker, which led to the 1974 TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
Dark Shadows began with the arrival of Victoria Winters to the town of Collinsport, ME to work as a governess in the Collinwood mansion, a hub of supernatural activity. Dark Shadows took off 10 months into its first year with the addition of Jonathan Frid as 200-year-old vampire Barnabas Collins.
Curtis directed the 1970 theatrical film House of Dark Shadows with the TV show's leads and the sequel, Night of Dark Shadows, in 1971. In 1991, NBC ran a prime-time hour-long version of Dark Shadows, starring Ben Cross as Barnabas Collins, which lasted for only 12 episodes. The WB commissioned a pilot for a revival in 2004 that didn't get picked up. The 2012 film Dark Shadows, starring Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins, featured Jonathan Frid in a cameo, his last role.
Source: TVLine