Let's get one thing clear: the actual Chewbacca Mom isn't getting her very own TV show. Her story, however, did inspire Nia Vardalos, she of My Big Fat Greek Wedding fame, to come up with a show that seems basically designed for memes and viral popularity.
According to Deadline, Vardalos is developing a show called Suburbs Famous that'll explore the impetus for Chewbacca Mom's sudden fame and what happens after the clicks stop coming.
"Suburbs Famous explores the concept of how it seems to be quite easy to become famous. I wanted to explore the concept of sudden fame for someone who isn't prepared and doesn't want it," Vardalos explained to Deadline. "For someone who gets power and doesn't know what to do with it, as well as what happens next."
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Vardalos will play a character who accidentally finds internet fame via a viral video. That's about all that the show, which will air on Bravo, has in common with the actual Chewbacca Mom (whose real name is Candace Payne). After she finds herself at the center of pop culture — which makes Bravo the perfect network for the show — the character will suddenly find herself thrust far, far away from the suburbs and rubbing shoulders with celebrities.
Add to the fact that the character will be newly divorced and surrounded by a team of publicists hell-bent on making her a star and viewers are in for a show with plenty going on, even without a Wookiee mask. At the center of it all, Vardalos explains, is power. When the character realizes that she has people willing to bend to her whims, the real fun starts, but Vardalos says it's all a delicate balance.
"One minute, you are white hot and the next you could go cold," she added.
Vardalos has some real-life experience to draw on, too. Her own success was pretty sudden, too. So she can probably portray the character better than your average actor, especially since she went from being basically anonymous to having paparazzi hound her after My Big Fat Greek Wedding became a sleeper sensation.
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