A cult sci-fi series is eying a comeback. The CW is developing a The 4400, a reimagening of the 2004 USA Network drama. It hails from Craig Sweeny, who got his break as a writer on the original series, Justified alum Taylor Elmore and CBS TV Studios where both are under deals.

Primetime-Panic Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders See All

The 4400 reboot will be co-written and executive produced by Elmore and Sweeny, with Elmore serving as showrunner as Sweeny is running his new CBS/CBS Studios series The Code.

Shutterstock

Over the course of recent history, four thousand four hundred young adults in their reproductive prime have gone missing all over the world—some disappearances happened as recently as a few weeks ago, while others date as far back as the infamous day the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957. One day in 2019, all 4,400 show up at the sites of their original abductions. None of them have aged a day; none have any memory of where they’ve been. The so called “4400” must grapple with their return to a changed and hostile world… and also contend with the reality that they’ve come back altered in ways that none of them yet understand.

The 4400, created by Scott Peters and René Echevarria, was part of the first wave of series under USA’s renewed push into original programming in the early 2000s. It followed the successful launches of The Dead Zone and Monk as the network was exploring different genres, including sci-fi, before focusing squarely on blue-sky procedurals.

.

The 4400, which starred Joel Gretsch and Jacqueline McKenzie, Mahershala Ali and Patrick Flueger, quickly developed a following and ran for four seasons, until the network moved away from genre. It remained a cult favorite and a title in the CBS TV Studios library that the studio brass had been keen on revisiting.

Since The 4400, there have been several other series about the unexplained return of people presumed dead, including The Returned and this season’s Manifest.

In addition to The 4400, the CW is rebooting another cult series this development season, soap The LA Complex.

Sweeny was on The 4400 for its entire four-season run, starting as a writer and rising to supervising producer. He went on to work on Medium and Elementary and to create/exec produce CBS/CBS Studios’ Limitless and co-create/exec produce the upcoming The Code. He is repped by WME and Jackoway Austen.

Elmore serves as executive producer on the upcoming CBS/CBS TV Studios series Blood & Treasure. He spent five years on FX’s Justified, rising to executive producer. His TV series credits also include CBS’ Cold Case and Raines. He is repped by UTA and attorney Bruce Gellman.