Fate: The Winx Saga

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***Fate: The Winx Saga*** is a young adult drama series created by Brian Young. It is a live-action adaptation of Nickelodeon's *Winx Club*  series, which was created by Iginio Straffi. Initially scheduled to premiere in 2020, the series was released on 22 January 2021 on Netflix. On 18 February 2021, Netflix announced that the series was renewed for a second season.

The writers for *Fate: The Winx Saga* are entirely new and did not work on the animated series. Early in production, some of Nickelodeon's  American team from the cartoon met with the new crew members and reviewed the pilot episode's script. A British company, Archery Pictures, produces the show in association with Rainbow SpA, a studio co-owned by Iginio Straffi and Viacom .

The first season consists of six episodes, each one hour long. According to Netflix, *Fate: The Winx Saga* is targeted towards an audience of young adults.

The show follows Bloom as she adjusts to life in the Otherworld, where she must learn to control her dangerous magical powers.

On November 1st, 2022, Brian Young announced on his Instagram that Netflix would not move forward with a third season. Two days later, Iginio Straffi made a public announcement that there was "a bigger reason that *Fate: The Winx Saga* will not return to Netflix."

## Premise

For the first time the popular six fairies will turn into real teenagers learning to hone their enchanting powers while living together in a magic boarding school..

## Cast and Characters

### Starring

* Abigail Cowen as Bloom
* Hannah van der Westhuysen as Stella
* Elisha Applebaum as Musa
* Eliot Salt as Terra
* Precious Mustapha as Aisha
* Danny Griffin as Sky
* Sadie Soverall as Beatrix
* Freddie Thorp as Riven
* Eva Birthistle as Vanessa Peters\*
* Robert James-Collier as Saul Silva
* Lesley Sharp as Rosalind Hale\*
* Eve Best as Farah Dowling
* Vea Cabral

### Guest Starring

* Theo Graham as Dane
* Alex Macqueen as Ben Harvey
* Jacob Dudman as Sam
* Josh Cowdery as Mike Peters
* Kate Fleetwood as Luna
* Ken Duken as Andreas
* Harry Michell as Callum Hunter
* Pom Boyd as Doris
* Leah Minto as Kat
* Sean Sagar as Marco
* Sarah Jane Seymour as Noura

## Production

Although he is not credited in any creative role on *Fate*, the idea for a live-action version of *Winx Club* came from the cartoon's creator, Iginio Straffi, back in May 2011. This was several months after Viacom  became a co-owner of Straffi's Rainbow studio and started financing his projects. As a cartoonist, Straffi had never worked with a live-action series. To get familiar with the medium, he produced the live-action show *Club 57* with Nickelodeon  before approving production on *Fate: The Winx Saga*.

On March 14, 2018, it was officially announced through a press release that a live-action young adult series based on *Winx Club* was set for an upcoming Netflix release.

After the first pilot script was drafted, some of Nickelodeon's American team from the cartoon travelled to meet with the *Fate* crew members, and they reviewed the script. One of the attendees was Molly Quinn, the voice actress of Bloom in the Nickelodeon revival.

On August 1, 2019, it was revealed that the show's working title will be *Fate: The Winx Club Saga*. It was also reported that the series will have a large budget with Brian Young as the showrunner for the series and Judy Counihan set to be the executive producer.

On August 14 and 15, 2019, *JOE* and *Wicklow News* reported that there were casting calls for teenagers and young adults for *Fate: The Winx Saga*.

On September 17, 2019, the Irish Examiner, *Entertainment.ie*, *Raidió Teilifís Éireann* and the *Irish Examiner* reported that filming for *Fate: The Winx Saga* had started on the same day, on September 17, 2019, in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland.

On September 17, 2019, the official *Winx Club* Instagram account announced that Abigail Cowen, Hannah van der Westhuyen, Precious Mustapha, Eliot Salt, Elisha Applebaum, Sadie Soverall, Freddie Thorp, and Danny Griffin would respectively portray Bloom, Stella, Aisha, Terra, Musa, Beatrix, Riven, and Sky.

In October 2019, *Backstage* revealed that the season will be co-directed by Hannah Quinn and Lisa James Larsson.

In November 2019, *The Irish Times* reported that filming for *Fate: The Winx Saga* was done at Ardmore Studios, located in Bray, County Wicklow, Republic of Ireland.

Filming for the first season of the series ended in December 2019, and Cinesite was still working on the visual effects in April and May 2020 despite the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2019, Film Music Reporter reported that Anne Nikitin would compose the soundtrack for *Fate: The Winx Saga*.

In May 2020, the Twitter account of Netflix's Brazilian branch announced that *Fate: The Winx Saga* will feature "breathtaking scenes", and stated that the show's release date was yet unknown.

In June 2020, *What's On Netflix* reported that Netflix had greenlit an early second season renewal for *Fate: The Winx Saga*.

In August 2020, the Italian newspaper *Il Sole 24 Ore* reported that *Fate: The Winx Saga* will be released in 2021.

In September 2020 at the Licensing Summit Online in Russia, Rainbow S.p.A. announced that *Fate: The Winx Saga* will premiere in January 2021 and that a ninth season of Winx Club  was in development.

On December 8, 2020, the official *Winx Club* Instagram account, showrunner Brian Young as well as multiple cast members posted an initial 22 second-long teaser for *Fate: The Winx Saga* on their respective social media accounts, all promoting official the Instagram and Twitter accounts for the show.

The Instagram and Twitter accounts posted three posts on that same day: the second post was captioned "The stronger the emotion, the stronger the magic" and featured the same words as the caption in video format; the third post was captioned "you've been accepted into Alfea College. details to follow on december 10 👀" and comprised three pictures, the first picture being a globe with two continents labelled Solaria and Eraklyon on them which shows Alfea being located on Solaria, and the two other pictures being of the inside spaces of Alfea.

On December 10, 2020, a longer teaser for *Fate: The Winx Saga* was uploaded by the Netflix YouTube channel and the official *Winx Club* and Rainbow S.p.A. social media pages, revealing the airing date for the show to be January 22, 2021.

On November 1st, 2022, Brian Young announced on his instagram that Netflix had canceled *Fate: The Winx Saga.*

## Trivia

* *Fate: The Winx Saga* premiered in January, the same month that *Winx Club* made its debut back in 2004.
* The title of the show, *Fate*, is possibly based on the etymological relevance to the Italian word "fata", which translates to "fairy", and "fate", which is the plural form.
	+ The original meaning of the word "fata", in Italian and Latin, is "deity of fate", which was how the Romans called the *Moirai*, the Greek goddesses of fate. The word developed with a general meaning of "supernatural being" and passed down through many languages, with other variations such as *fay*, *fey*, *fae and* eventually into the English word *fairy*.
* The production was mainly handled by a United Kingdom-based studio (Archery Pictures) and most of the actors are British and Irish.
	+ Fittingly, the original *Winx Club* remains very popular on Nickelodeon's British channel, ranking as the second-most-popular program on Nickelodeon UK.
	+ On *Fate'*s launch weekend, Nickelodeon UK aired the *Winx* episodes "Mystery of Calavera" and "Zombie Invasion" from season six.
* According to Netflix's behind-the-scenes video, the visual effects crew made the decision early on that there would be no costume change during the transformations.
* Eva Birthistle (who portrays Vanessa) and Lesley Sharp (who portrays Rosalind) are only credited in the main cast in the episodes they appear. They are not considered Series Regulars.
* *Fate: The Winx Saga* was the second *Winx Club* spin-off to premiere on Netflix. The first was *World of Winx*.
* *Fate: The Winx Saga* has a target audience of young adults.
* According to Straffi, referring to complaints by fans of the animated *Winx Club* show that that its newer seasons are childish, "the things we had to tone down in the animation have been emphasized in the live action—the relationships, the fights, the love stories."
* According to an interview given by the showrunner Brian Young and the actress Abigail Cowen:
	+ The Fairies in *Fate: The Winx Saga* have no wings or Fairy Forms , unlike the Fairies  in *Winx Club*.
	+ The role of the Specialists in *Fate: The Winx Saga* is to protect the Otherworld from feared beings known as the Burned Ones.
	+ *Fate: The Winx Saga* challenges the outdated gender norms of the original *Winx Club* series by including male Fairies and female Specialists.
	+ The production team opted to go for a more realistic setting and for more realistic characters for *Fate: The Winx Saga* compared to the original *Winx Club* show.
	+ *Fate: The Winx Saga* is meant to be an emotionally authentic series for both Cowen, who experienced bullying in middle school, and Young, who was coming out as gay, and who therefore both experienced difficult high school years.
* Shortly after the teaser for Fate: The Winx Saga was released, fans criticized it for:
	+ Whitewashing characters of color of the *Winx Club* franchise because, while Flora is dark-skinned Latina coded and Musa is East Asian coded in the original *Winx Club* series, Flora was renamed Terra in *Fate: The Winx Saga* and both Terra and Musa are portrayed by white actresses in *Fate: The Winx Saga*.
	+ Being too dark compared to the original *Winx Club* series, and for abandoning the original series' colorful costumes and brighter elements.
* *Fate: The Winx Saga* ranked 8th on Fandom's Top TV shows for 2021.
* On 18 September 2022, author Sarah Rees Brennan confirmed that her *Fate: The Winx Saga* novels are canon to the series. She noted that the show's production team were considerate of the continuity between the series and the novels. The novels published thus far are *The Fairies' Path* and *Lighting the Fire*.

## External Links

* Fate: The Winx Saga's official website

* Fate: The Winx Saga on Wikipedia

* Fate: The Winx Saga at the Internet Movie Database

* Follow Fate: The Winx Saga (@fatenetflix) on Twitter

* Follow Fate: The Winx Saga (@fatenetflix) on Instagram

* Winx Club Wiki , about the original animated series

## References

1. ↑ Every Netflix Original Series Coming in 2020. What's on Netflix. 5 December 2019.
2. ↑ Every Netflix Original Series Coming in 2020. What's On Netflix. 5 December 2019.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Le Winx irlandesi e quella «Disney» europea che l’Italia dimentica. Il Sole 24 Ore. 9 August 2020.
4. ↑ ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’ Season 1: Everything We Know So Far. What‘s On Netflix. 9 November 2020.
5. ↑ ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’ Renewed For Season 2 On Netflix
6. ↑ you: are we getting a season 2?⁣ us: YES!
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Molly Quinn (Nickelodeon voice of Bloom) official account. Twitter. 8 January 2021.
8. ↑ Netflix ha prodotto una serie basata sul cartone animato Winx
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Netflix's latest TV series, 'Fate: The Winx Saga', is now filming in Ireland. entertainment.ie. 17 September 2019.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Winx Club official account. Instagram. 17 September 2019.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Brian Young, via Instagram, 1 November 2022. https://www.instagram.com/p/CkbCpcSrplV/
12. ↑ Iginio Straffi, via Instagram, 3 November 2022. https://www.instagram.com/p/CkfyV7CpL-F/
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Netflix to Adapt Winx Club into a Live Action Young Adult Series". Netflix. 14 March 2018.
14. ↑ 2011: Paramount strikes deal for Rainbow's Not Born To Be Gladiators. Screen International. May 13, 2011.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 TV Kids Licensing Expo, Annecy & NATPE Budapest 2019. Worldscreen. May 23, 2019.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Live-Action ‘Winx Club’ Series In Pre-Production. Discussing Film. July 31, 2019.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’: Abigail Cowen To Lead Ensemble Cast Of Netflix YA Series. Deadline Hollywood. September 17, 2019.
18. ↑ Open casting call for new fantasy Netflix series. Wicklow News. August 14, 2019.
19. ↑ There's an open casting call for young adults and teenagers to appear in a new Netflix series. JOE. August 15, 2019.
20. ↑ Netflix young adult series Fate: The Winx Saga begins filming in Ireland. Raidió Teilifís Éireann. September 17, 2019.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Netflix young-adult series begins filming in Wicklow. Irish Examiner.September 17, 2019.
22. ↑ Get Cast in Da Vinci TV Series ‘Leonardo’ + More UK Projects. Backstage. October 14, 2019.
23. ↑ Vikings spin-off Valhalla to be filmed for Netflix in Wicklow. The Irish Times. November 19, 2019.
24. ↑ Abigail Cowen. Instagram. December 12, 2019.
25. ↑ How the international VFX industry is continuing to work during the coronavirus shutdown. Screen International. April 7, 2020.
26. ↑ VFX House Cinesite Makes Three Senior Appointments in London and Montreal. Variety. June 10, 2020.
27. ↑ People on the Move: Exec Hirings, Exits & Academy Board Elections. Animation Magazine. June 10, 2020.
28. ↑ Anne Nikitin to Score Gabriel Range’s ‘Stardust’ & Netflix’s ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’. Film Music Reporter. December 23, 2019.
29. ↑ *A produção foi feita na Irlanda, então já podemos esperar cenários de tirar o fôlego. Soube também que a história das nossas fadinhas sensatas vai ser contada em 6 episódios e que temos a Abigail Cowen (ex-bruxinha de The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) como a nossa Bloom*. Netflix Brazil. Twitter. May 26, 2020.
30. ↑ *Sobre a data lançamento: eu acho que vocês vão ter que fazer um feitiço de acelerar o tempo ou fazer uma poção alguém abrir a boca e soltar mais spoilers, sei lá... Prometo que conto aqui quando souber!*. Neftlix Brazil. Twitter. May 26, 2020.
31. ↑ ‘Ozark,’ ‘Warrior Nun’ and ‘Fate: The Winx Saga’ Reportedly Renewed at Netflix. What's On Netflix. June 29, 2020.
32. ↑ Rainbow srl confirms Winx Club season 9!! 😍✨ . Winx Club All. September 17, 2020.
33. ↑ Winx Club. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
34. ↑ Brian Young. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
35. ↑ Abigail Cowen. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
36. ↑ Elisha Applebaum. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
37. ↑ Danny Griffin. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
38. ↑ Sadie Soverall. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
39. ↑ Hannah van der Westhuyen. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
40. ↑ Precious Mustapha. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
41. ↑ Freddie Thorp. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
42. ↑ Jacob Dudman. Twitter. December 8, 2020.
43. ↑ Precious Mustapha. Twitter. December 8, 2020.
44. ↑ *The stronger the emotion, the stronger the magic*. Fate: The Winx Saga. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
45. ↑ *The stronger the emotion, the stronger the magic*. Fate: The Winx Saga. Twitter. December 8, 2020.
46. ↑ *you've been accepted into Alfea College. details to follow on december 10 👀*. Fate: The Winx Saga. Instagram. December 8, 2020.
47. ↑ *you've been accepted into Alfea College. details to follow on december 10 👀*. Fate: The Winx Saga. Twitter. December 8, 2020.
48. ↑ Fate: The Winx Saga | Teaser and Date Reveal | Netflix. YouTube. December 10, 2020.
49. ↑ Winx Club. Instagram. December 10, 2020.
50. ↑ Rainbow. Instagram. December 10, 2020.
51. ↑ Winx Club. Facebook. December 10, 2020.
52. ↑ "Nickelodeon Consumer Products' Winx Club drive bolstered by strong viewing figures". Licensing.biz. October 11, 2011.
53. ↑ Nickelodeon UK schedule: January 24 and 25, 2021.
54. ↑ Netflix official channel - Fate: The Winx Saga VFX Breakdown. Netflix. January 28, 2021.
55. ↑ "‘Winx Club’: Netflix Adapting Italian Animated Franchise As YA Series". Deadline Hollywood. March 14, 2018.
56. ↑ Fans aren’t happy about ‘whitewashing’ of Netflix’s ‘Winx Club’ adaptation. Daily Dot. December 10, 2020.
57. ↑ Fate: The Winx Saga Delivers a Whitewashed & Glitter-Free Adaptation of the Cartoon. The Mary Sue. December 10, 2020.
58. ↑ Netflix releases trailer for 'Winx Club' remake: 'Fate: The Winx Saga'. Today. December 10, 2020.
59. ↑ Netflix Slammed for Whitewashing Winx Club Live Action Cast. Decider. December 10, 2020.
60. ↑ Netflix criticised for whitewashing two characters in Winx Club adaptation: ‘They just killed my favourite childhood’. The Independent. December 11, 2020.
61. ↑ Netflix Delivers Whitewashed "Winx Club" Adaptation. Chaos and Comrades. December 11, 2020.
62. ↑ Netflix accused of ‘whitewashing’ its Winx Club reboot by disappointed fans. indy100. December 11, 2020.
63. ↑ Winx Fans Accuse Netflix of Whitewashing the Live-Action Series' Cast. CBR. December 11, 2020.
64. ↑ Winx Club ‘whitewashing’ controversy explained: Twitter reacts to Netflix revival!. HITC. December 11, 2020.
65. ↑ “Fate: The Winx Saga” To Give Us a Whitewashed Version of the Winx Club Franchise!. The Geekiary. December 11, 2020.
66. ↑ 'Winx Club' Whitewash Controversy: Fans Are Angry With Netflix Right Now. Distractify. December 11, 2020.
67. ↑ Netflix is slammed for 'whitewashing' new live-action remake of Nickelodeon cartoon Winx Club by replacing beloved Latina and Asian characters with WHITE actresses. December 11, 2020.
68. ↑ Fans On Twitter Accuse Netflix Of Whitewashing The Cast Of The New 'Winx Club' Series. The Things. December 13, 2020.
69. ↑ Relive your childhood with the Winx Club live-action that is angering the internet. The Tempest. December 20, 2020.
70. ↑ Why Netflix's Winx Club Has Fans Angry: Whitewashing Controversy Explained. Screen Rant. December 20, 2020.
71. ↑ Flora on Netflix’s Winx Club remake sparks ‘whitewash’ accusations. Monsters and Critics. December 11, 2020.
72. ↑ Fandom's Top TV Shows for 2021
73. ↑ Sarah Rees Brennan's official Twitter account