CW’s new Nancy Drew, Kennedy McMann, knew she was meant to play the role before she even auditioned.

“I had gotten a text from my agent while I was playing ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ with my friends,” McMann, 22, told the audience during the show’s panel on Thursday at San Diego Comic-Con. “She was like, ‘Oh my gosh, Kennedy, there’s a “Nancy Drew” script,’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ … and looked up at my friends and was like, ‘Guys, I’m going to be Nancy Drew.’”

When she finally got the script, McMann — who was a nanny at the time — spent the evening practicing her lines while watching the kids.

The new series follows a post-high-school-age Nancy who’s given up sleuthing, but a murder and a local town legend of a ghost gets her back into detective mode.

The CW has put its own spin on the classic character.

“Nancy Drew isn’t perfect in the year 2019,” executive producer Noga Landau told the crowd. “She was always very prim, she did everything right in the earlier books, but now she’s complicated. She has tragedy, she’s lost things, she has complicated relationships with family and friends.”

As for whether or not the Hardy Boys will come through at any point, producers teased, “We shall see!”

© Lindsey Kupfer
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In the spirit of Riverdale, The CW’s new take on the classic Nancy Drew is darker, more supernatural and little sexier than the teen sleuth that we are used to. Comic-Con fangirls and fanboys were treated to a sneak peek at the pilot episode of the new series from showrunner Melinda Hsu-Taylor as well as executive producers Noga Landau and Stephanie Savage which was a spooky hybrid of Veronica Mars and Charmed (yes, I know Nancy came before Veronica). The trio was on hand in Ballroom 20 at San Diego along with the new Nancy Drew Kennedy McMann as well as series stars Leah Lewis, Maddison Jaizani, Alex Saxon and Tunji Kasim to talk about this new take on a YA classic.

Hsu-Taylor points out that she did read the original series and connected with the character but wanted to diversify the cast for the new iteration. Yes, the Nancy remains white, but her crew is inclusive and with three women helming the show, Hsu-Taylor said, that she is “proud we are diverse in the casting and behind the camera.”

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