Meet Nikita.
Maggie Q (Live Free or Die Hard, Mission Impossible 3) is in talks to play the title role in CW's Nikita reboot. Based on the 1990 Luc Besson film, Nikita follows a young convicted criminal recruited by a secret government agency that trains her to become an assassin. It was remade in 1997 as a TV series starring Peta Wilson on USA Network.
The CW pilot's premise of a new Nikita being trained to replace the original one after she goes rogue gave creator Craig Silverstein an opportunity to break the stereotype, and he wrote the lead as "beautiful and exotic."
The pending hire of Maggie Q in "Nikita," from WBTV and McG's Wonderland, would mark the highest-profile series role for an Asian actress on a broadcast drama series and the highest-profile CW minority casting in the network's four-year history.
It sounds like the CW show might be taking the film and its Nikita (whose codename was actually "Josephine") as premise, which makes me wonder whether the show might eventually cast two "Nikitas" (a la Bionic Woman). Even in the Charlie's Angels franchise, it was hard to keep the ex-Angels out for long, and Nikita is executive produced by the same man, McG.
I would have been so happy had the role gone to Dichen Lachman, of the recented off-air Dollhouse, but I am absolutely ecstatic about Maggie Q getting the part.
Now we just have to find a suitable male lead. The role of Nikita's trainer/mentor has been played in past versions by Tchéky Karyo, Gabriel Byrne, and Roy Dupuis.
