

A Tennessee High school teacher’s after-school forensic class will be the basis of a new series. According to Deadline, Killer Class is now in development at ABC with Steven Lilien (CSI: NY, Kyle XY) and Bryan Wynbrandt (Quantum Leap, La Brea) serving as showrunners. Joe Webb (Pontiac Angel, Sleepy Hollow) and Ken Kwapis (Sisterhood Everlasting, Love and Rodents) will direct the upcoming series.
According to Deadline, 20th TV and Kwapis will develop the series alongside his In Cahoots banner with Rachel Kaplan’s (The Baker and the Beauty, The Brave) Absecon Entertainment. Lilien, Wynbrandt, and Webb join as executive producers along with Alex Beattie (The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Watching Ellie) and co-executive producer Reynolds Anderson (The Fan Connection, A Walk in the Woods).
Based on an article written by Keith Sharon (My Melancholy Baby, Finding Steve McQueen), the series is inspired by a real group of students who solved unsolved crimes as part of their forensics club, according to Deadline. “The fact that these kids and their teacher were able to solve cases that had been cold for decades blew me away. I thought: Breakfast Club meets true crime,” Kwapis said.
According to Deadline, Kwapis is an Emmy-nominated director for his work on NBC’s The Office and received an Outstanding Comedy Series nom for Fox’s Malcolm in the Middle. He recently directed four episodes of Disney+’s Malcolm revival and The Office spinoff, The Paper, coming to Peacock this September.
According to Deadline, Lilien and Wynbrandt have a decorated resume, having recently worked with Kaplan on NBC’s time-jumping adventure series La Brea and the reboot of 80s sci-fi series Quantum Leap. They earned the Humanitas Prize for CBS’s God Friended Me and are slated to EP the upcoming Netflix series, I Will Find You, from author Harlan Coben (Tell No One, Just One Look). They have representation from Range Media Partners, Todd Rubenstein, and CAA.
Deadline lists Webb as a supervising producer on CBS’s FBI, penning seven episodes for the crime drama. In addition to TV writing, Webb is a touring musician, a Jeopardy! winner, and a Kaplan National Teacher of the Year award recipient.