When the news was announced that Netflix would be doing its own version of Little House on the Prairie, it came with expectations as heavy as all the supplies the Ingalls brought with them on their journey west. The hit novel series by Laura Ingalls Wilder has been one of the most popular book franchises of all time, and the 70s and 80s brought frontier life to our screens with the iconic TV series starring Melissa Gilbert and Michael Landon. There's a lot weighing on this version of Little House, considering how much it has made an impression on people both on page and screen. And that is certainly the case for showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine.
?SIGN UP for Parade's Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox ? "I read all the books; I read them over and over again," she reveals to Parade in an exclusive interview. "They were kind of part of my personality. So I think I've actually been planning this my whole life. It's my dream. It kind of inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker. These books are so vivid that they really created a movie in my mind as a kid. So I can thank Little House on the Prairie for sort of setting me onto my path in life."That path includes a number of impressive credits for Sonnenshine, including The Vampire Diaries, The Boys and most recently the screenplay for the hit horror filmThe Housemaid. But now she's circling the wagons back to her original inspiration, bringing a new adaptation of the Ingalls and their adventures out west in Kansas. But, despite her extreme familiarity with the source material, she's also not afraid to take some liberties, including crafting brand-new storylines for the other residents of the town of Independence.Sonnenshine talks with Parade about the scene she had the most difficulty adapting to the screen, creating new plots outside of the Ingalls family, and what to expect from the already-renewed Season 2.Related: Alice Halsey, the New Laura Ingalls, Reveals How She Reacted to Meeting Melissa Gilbert
How did you come up with the idea to create your own version of Little House on the Prairie?It is an incredibly important television series to a lot of people. I fell in love with the books when I was five years old. My cousin gave me her extra copy of it, because I proved to her that I could read, and it sort of set me on this path of being a Little House on the Prairie sort of completist. I read all the books; I read them over and over again. They were kind of part of my personality. When I was misbehaving, my mom would ground me by taking away my books.So I think I've actually been planning this my whole life. It's my dream. It kind of inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker. These books are so vivid that they really created a movie in my mind as a kid. So I can thank Little House on the Prairie for sort of setting me onto my path in life.What was the most difficult part about adapting Little House from page to screen?Oh my gosh, that is a good question. I think the scene that we worked on the most was when the Osage came into the house, actually. Because we wanted to reframe it from what it was in the books, and we had a lot of discussions about it, and what it would look like, and how we would portray it. And I think we were successful. I'm very happy with what we came to. But it's a huge part of the book, and we wanted to include it, but by sort of shifting the perspective of it.Talk to me more about that. While the book is obviously from a very specific perspective, the TV series chooses to highlight more of an ensemble around town. There's new storylines around the Osage family, for instance. Dr. Tann and Emily have their own romance. Did you come into this entire process aiming to showcase the characters outside of the Ingalls family?Yes, absolutely. The books are a little bit limited in their POV, because they're very much through Laura's eyes, which of course we want to absolutely portray in this series. But also we wanted to widen out a little bit and provide some historical context, provide truly fully-realized characters that may have been just a moment in the book, or referred to as something unknowable. I think one of the great things about adapting a work is that you kind of can make some of the unknowables known to people and really open up this lens on who's who. How did America become America? Who are the people who ended up settling the frontier? Who were the people who already lived on the frontier? It's an interesting question, and I think the time for it now is exciting. Because we have so much information, right, and we have so much new understanding of the world. It's great to bring our characters into that.
Showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine reveals that the scene where the Osage enter the Ingalls household was the hardest to write in the 'Little House on the Prairie' reboot, saying, 'We wanted to reframe it from what it was in the books, and we had a lot of discussions about it, and what it would look like, and how we would portray it.'Eric Zachanowich/Netflix
Related: ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Reboot Casts 2 More Iconic Characters—With a TwistAt the beginning of the series, we get a bit of a mystery behind why the Ingalls family left Wisconsin. And, through some flashbacks and fever dreams, we find out it was due to the death of Charles's brother George, and him subsequently getting the blame. Talk to me about incorporating this into the story.We wanted to have a sort of rich and textured family life that they had left behind. It was inspired by Little House in the Big Woods. There is a character of Uncle George, who is his younger brother. He's portrayed in that book as still wearing his uniform and blowing his bugle. He was a drummer boy in the war and as a kid that seems like, "Oh, that's so fun." And as an adult you think feels like maybe that person has some trauma from the war.And so that's kind of it was definitely inspired by those scenes from the book in Little House in the Big Woods. And then wanting to talk a little bit about the aftermath of the Civil War, and what people were going through, and the discovery of what we would call PTSD, now labeled as melancholia, and tying that into a family secret. It just kind of hit so many great elements that we wanted to explore.We need to get into how Season 1 ended. We know that Season 2 has already been confirmed. So are we just heading straight to Plum Creek and Walnut Grove?Yeah. The last scene of the season, you know that they're headed for Walnut Grove and the Olsen General Store, and that they're going to meet those characters. The next season is on the banks of Plum Creek, and it's really exciting.It should be noted that Edwards is the only person besides the Ingalls family who goes from Kansas to Minnesota. Given what you mentioned earlier about wanting to flesh out the cast of characters, is there a chance we'll see anyone else from Season 1 show up in Walnut Grove?This show, I hope, runs a long time. And we had such an extraordinary cast. All of those characters were so special and delightful and wonderful, great actors, great people. We don't know. I think that the hope always is that everybody is part of the family now. The Ingalls move around a lot, so you don't know who they're gonna run into!
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