Grease is getting a spin-off musical TV series titled 'Grease: Rydell High'

16 October 2019, 12:33

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta as Sandy and Danny in Grease
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta as Sandy and Danny in Grease. Picture: PA

By Rory O'Connor

Grease fans will surely be singing "tell me more, tell me more" after details of a Grease spin-off were announced.

Grease was a hit film starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John as Danny and Sandy, but now it has been revealed the movie will be getting a new TV series involving characters and songs from the original film.

The new TV show will be called Grease: Rydell High and will be set in the same high school of Rydell High.

While familiar faces will be included, the show will also introduce new characters.

It has not yet been revealed how many episodes will be produced, but it is being produced by Paramount Television for streaming service HBO Max.

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta as Sandy and Danny in Grease
Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta as Sandy and Danny in Grease. Picture: Getty

The show's official description reads: "It’s still the 1950s, a world that rocks with big musical numbers from the period combined with new original songs as well.

"It’s the peer pressures of high school, the horrors of puberty, and the rollercoaster of life in middle America with a modern sensibility that will bring it to life for today’s musical lovers."

HBO Max original content head Sarah Aubrey said in a statement: "This is high school and life in small-town USA told on the scale of a big Rock and Roll musical.

"Grease is an iconic pop-culture phenomenon that works for every generation, and I'm thrilled that our friends at Paramount were excited about the idea of opening up the show and putting it on a larger canvas for a weekly series.

John Travolta as Danny in Grease along with the T-Birds
John Travolta as Danny in Grease along with the T-Birds. Picture: Getty

"It’s Grease 2.0 but with the same spirit, energy and excitement you immediately think of when you hear any of these iconic songs."

The spin-off was first introduced this week during the Mipcom conference in Cannes, France where WarnerMedia's entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said: "We're going to build out the world of this show which everybody loves, in that musical style, and build basically a High School Musical kind of experience that will be a big fun Rock and Roll musical."

The news comes six months after a Grease movie prequel was announced, titled Summer Loving.

A synopsis for the prequel revealed it will follow the story of how Danny met Sandy.