Penny Marshall's A League of Their Own was a bonafide home run.
When Abbi Jacobson and Will Graham set out to make a Prime Video series about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, they knew they couldn't recreate the magic of the 1992 film. So they didn't try to. Instead, they crafted their own version that introduces new stories, while still referencing Marshall's work.
"I think it's as original as we could make it being based on that real league," Jacobson told The Hollywood Reporter. "Penny Marshall watched a documentary about the All-American Girls League, and then the movie came out of her viewing that and being, ‘Oh, I want to make a film about this.' We saw the doc and then saw the movie and were like, ‘We're gonna make our own thing about that.'"
She acknowledged some characters will seem a bit familiar, noting that D'Arcy Carden's character has "a Madonna vibe" and Melanie Fields' Jo looks similar to Rosie O'Donnell's Doris Murphy.
But Jacobson and Graham specifically made sure that the coach, played by Nick Offerman, isn't at all like Tom Hanks' Jimmy Dugan, saying that this show is "not about the coach's redemption story."
"Tom Hanks is one of my favorite parts of that movie, but with this telling the coach is not and Nick knew that coming," Jacobson said. "It's a different portrayal."
The A League of Their Own series will also introduce new characters, including Chanté Adams' Max Chapman, a Black baseball player who is based on three real woman. "Their stories are fu--ing incredible and Penny Marshall, in the film," Jacobson said, "was nodding to them when that foul ball is thrown back by a Black woman."
But Max isn't just used to discuss race within the league. As Chanté told The Hollywood Reporter, "She is many things and does not want to be labeled as just one thing. She's also trying to figure out exactly who she is."
More than that, the series will openly discuss sexuality and gender identity, which Marshall merely alluded to in her film. For the creators, it was important to explore these topics because of how it affected the players. Graham said, "As we started to look more into the stories underneath it, we were like, ‘Oh, there's a gigantic story here that hasn't been told about queer women and women of color and ultimately joy—the work that goes into joy and finding a way to do the thing that you love in a world that doesn't want you to."
Real-life AAGPBL player Maybelle Blair wasn't out when she was in the league and understands why Marshall didn't highlight this aspect in 1992. "When Penny made the movie, they left out a lot of that because it wasn't the time to reveal it as much," she told The Hollywood Reporter, noting that the Prime Video series is "telling the real, truthful story."
A League of Their Own premieres Aug. 12 on Prime Video.