Wildwood TV Show In Development

It looks like Hollywood is coming back to the Wildwoods for a brand new TV show that’s currently in development.

The breaking news came from Deadline, which announced late Monday night that FX and 20th Television are developing a new comedy series called “Wildwood” from BAFTA Award-winning writer Lisa McGee, best known as the creator of the hit series Derry Girls. According to Deadline, the project won out in a competitive bidding process, showing there’s already plenty of interest behind it.

According to Deadline, the series is set in Wildwood during the summer of 2000 and follows a group of college-aged women from Ireland who arrive at the Jersey Shore with “no money, no visas, no plan, and no clue.”

The comedy follows their adventures as they navigate work, friendships, and everything that comes with spending a summer in one of New Jersey’s most iconic shore towns.

For anyone familiar with the Wildwoods, the premise isn’t far from reality.

Every summer, the Wildwoods welcome more than 4,000 international college students from over 32 countries through the J-1 Work and Travel program.

These students make up a significant portion of the seasonal workforce, especially on the Boardwalk and throughout the island, working in restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, retail shops, water parks, and dozens of other businesses that rely on extra help during the busy summer season.

While this new series is set in the summer of 2000, international students have been a major part of the Wildwoods’ summer culture for decades.

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If you’ve spent any amount of time walking the Boardwalk over the years, chances are you’ve met students from Ireland, Eastern Europe, South America, or Asia working behind the counter at your favorite pizza shop, operating rides on Morey’s Piers, or checking guests into hotels.

It’s one of the things that has helped shape the unique summer atmosphere the Wildwoods are known for.

If Lisa McGee’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she created Derry Girls, one of the biggest comedy successes to come out of the United Kingdom in recent years. The series became an international hit after landing on Netflix and earned multiple BAFTA Awards along with International Emmy recognition. Wildwood would also mark McGee’s first television series set outside of Europe.

If the project moves forward, it would also continue a trend that’s been building across New Jersey.

Thanks to expanded state film tax incentives, New Jersey has seen a major resurgence in television and movie production over the last several years. The Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, starring Timothée Chalamet, filmed scenes in Cape May.

Happy Gilmore 2 also shot scenes in New Jersey, while HBO’s upcoming crime drama Task and Netflix’s The Whisper Man have filmed throughout the state. Netflix has even begun developing its massive production campus at the former Fort Monmouth, a project expected to make New Jersey one of the country’s premier filming destinations over the next decade.

If Wildwood ultimately films on location here, it would be another major addition to that growing list while bringing national and even international attention to the island.

Right now, however, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. No cast has been announced, no production schedule has been released, and there is no confirmation yet that filming will actually take place in Wildwood. The series remains in the development stage, meaning it still has to move through the television production process before cameras begin rolling.

Still, it’s exciting news for the Wildwoods. A television series centered around our island, written by one of the most successful comedy creators working today, has the potential to introduce a whole new audience to the place so many of us call home.

We will be sure to keep you in the loop on this one!