Nancy Drew, AKA Riverdale 2.0, Debuts at Comic-Con

There's no mystery big or small that she can't solve, and now Nancy Drew is making her way to the small screen for The CW - and Comic-Con attendees got a first look at the show.

Nancy Drew stars newcomer Kennedy McMann as the titular sleuth herself, with Scott Wolf playing her dad (replacing Freddie Prinze Jr. who was originally cast in the role). According to the show's description, it will follow Nancy after her "college plans are put on hold [and] finds herself involved in a ghostly mystery when she and her four friends are witnesses (and suspects) to a murder, and team up to find the person responsible."

In attendence at the show's Ballroom 20 panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego were McMann, Leah Lewis, Maddison Jaizani, Alex Saxon, and Tunji Kasim, and showrunner Melinda Hsu-Taylor, as well as executive producers Noga Landau and Stephanie Savage.

So put on your best detective wear (this is The CW, after all), because here is everything we learned about Nancy Drew during the panel.

We saw the first episode!
Before we got to any sort of Q&A session during the panel, the audience was treated to the pilot episode of the series, which sets up what will undoubtedly be a huge arc for the season.

Nancy's taking a year before she heads off to college, and she's working at a diner in town, The Claw. When someone ends up dead there on her watch, she's a suspect -- and so are all her acquaintances at The Claw. Who killed one of the most powerful women in town, and why? Everyone's got some sort of motive here, and everyone's hiding one (if not multiple) secrets.

Think: if Veronica Mars lived in Riverdale. That's the vibe and look the show seems to be going for, and it's not like that's a bad thing.

Expect classic Nancy Drew moments
The show will pay homage to the literary heroine, so be on the lookout for Easter eggs in the show, with plenty of people, places, and things that Nancy came across in the books. Her second novel, The Hidden Staircase, gets a major shoutout in the first episode. But don't expect them to ever take a story from the novel and re-create it beat-for-beat on the show.

Nancy Drew, but 2019
Savage explained, "[We] started from the idea of everything that we loved about Nancy Drew, that she was brave and smart and fearless and stood up for herself, but there was also something else to Nancy Drew. She also had a darkness in her, so when we first sat down, [we asked ourselves], 'Why is Nancy following these people into these dark alleys? And getting hit over the head with a candlestick and tied to a chair?'"

Landau continued, "Girls have always wanted to go run around and do whatever they want to do, so that's a universal appeal. Nancy Drew isn't perfect. But now she's complicated, she has tragedy, she's lost things, she has complicated relationships with her family and her friends."

All of Nancy's friends are here
Classic characters from the novels -- like Bess (Jaizani), George (Lewis), and Ned (Kasim) -- are front-and-center on the show. Ned has gone through the biggest change, with Kasim explaining, "He has his criminal past, and he's got a lot of skeletons [in his closet]." Also, "He's now called Nick!"

No one is talking about the Freddie Prinze Jr. in the room
After the pilot was shot, Prinze left the project and was replaced by Wolf. Usually, when this happens, the pilot is reshot. Not in Nancy Drew's case! Comic-Con attendees were treated to a glimpse of Prinz as Carson Drew, with Wolf nowhere in sight. No one discussed the recasting on the panel, but Wolf did get a shoutout from the young cast, so it's clear they're happy with the new Mr. Drew.

Cross your fingers for the Hardy Boys
Once upon a time, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys used to go hand-in-hand. When asked about the prospects of the Hardy Boys driving through town one day, Landau smiled and said, "We shall see."

The town is full of supernatural things
Nancy has historically always lived in River Heights, but yes, the team behind the show was worried about the fact that the town's name might sound too much like a certain Riverdale. So, Horseshoe Harbor it is (which is the name of a real place in Vancouver, so the sets department was psyched that they didn't have to change any signage around the town).

Also, yes, the town is haunted. The creative team was drawn to the supernatural elements from the Nancy Drew books and wanted to bring that to the series, so we're going to be seeing lots of ghosts, among other things. However, they promised we will not be seeing any vampires.

Nancy Drew will premiere on The CW on Oct. 9.