When news about Emerald City first came out, most sites compared the show as a Game of Thrones-take to L. Frank Baum's world of Oz.
In a recent press event with NBC, the matter was raised to the cast and crew of the show. True Detective's Adria Arjona, who plays Dorothy in the show, tells the media that while she is a fan of Game of Thrones, director Tarsem Singh has made a beautiful world on its own in Emerald City.
The show's executive producer, David Schulner, commented about the comparisons between the two and said, "We're the same genre - adult fantasy - but I hope that our show is beautiful and less bleak and 100 percent less rape-y." He explains that the reason why Emerald City doesn't have any sexual violence is because of the source material in itself, in this case L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is known for female empowerment. Additionally, the author's mother was one of the first suffragettes in history and L. Frank Baum is known to be a feminist, along with his wife, Maud Gage Baum. It would be against the spirit of the original material to add anything along the lines of sexual violence, as Schulner adds that "There's a strength and an outlook in Oz that is completely antithetical to that."
But even without sexual violence, that doesn't mean Dorothy is safe in Tarsem Singh's land of Oz. Shaun Cassidy, an executive producer says "Dorothy does get beaten up pretty good though." He adds that "Every female character on the show has an incredibly strong arc," concluding that Emerald City is female-empowered in comparison.
Emerald City will premiere in NBC on January 6, 2017.
Watch the trailer of Emerald City here: