How Amazon's A League of Their Own Breathes New Life Into The Beloved Movie
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Remaking a movie as beloved and acclaimed as 1992's A League of Their Own is a daunting and perhaps ill-advised endeavor—so it's a good thing that Amazon's new series of the same name is not a remake. Instead, it's a parallel story set at the same time as the original sports comedy, but following an entirely different women's baseball team as they fight for recognition.
Just like the movie, A League of Their Own is set in 1943, which was the year the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League was formed. With a majority of young men drafted into World War II, the league was an attempt to keep baseball alive and relevant in the absence of the MLB.
To celebrate the show's launch on August 12, A League of Their Own co-creators Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham made an appearance at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. The pair agreed that one of their key priorities with the remake was to tell a more inclusive group of stories within the larger underdog stories, and centers multiple women of color and queer characters.
"We didn’t set out to remake the movie," said Graham. "We wanted to make it our own, to shine a light on more of the real stories that weren’t told in the movie."
In addition to co-creating the series and writing several episodes, Jacobson stars as Carson Shaw, catcher for the newly-formed Rockford Peaches. "I love playing insecure," Jacobson said during the panel, reflecting on her character's experience as a queer woman during the 1940s. "If you watch anything I do, that's kind of where I start."
Jacobson, who came out in 2018, added that she felt a personal connection to the story of Carson, who starts exploring her sexuality after she develops a connection with Greta, a confident but mysterious all-star played by D’Arcy Carden. "In coming to know herself better through her sexuality, [Carson] finds her confidence through doing what she loves most," Jacobson continued. "The more you know yourself, the better you are at everything you do."
The full eight-episode series is available to watch on Amazon now—and though a second season is yet to be officially greenlit, it's already in the works. "We already know what we want to do with Season two, and we're hoping to have as many [seasons] as possible," Graham said. "We’ve already started writing and bringing the story for Season 2. Our hope is to shoot in like, mid-spring... We’re just so happy to be proud to be in this moment and be telling these stories, and we can’t wait to go back and do more.”
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