Its not DYNASTY without Joan Collins!

Dynasty, the exemplar of '80s excess and Reagan-era reading, is getting rebooted because why not? The CW is creating a new take on the classic primetime soap, with producers from Gossip Girl, Revenge, and the original show all wrestling into the reboot pool  together. 

 

For those of you too young to know what Dynasty is...gurl: it was the Shadelympics. Gold medalists Alexis Carrington (the immortal Joan Collins) and later Dominique Deveraux (the incomparable Diahann Carroll) pretty much defined "bad bitch" for an entire generation—

 

 Running from 1981-89, Dynasty proved a massive hit and cultural touchstone as it told the story of the wealthy Carringtons and Colbys amid their struggle for power and the most cunty one-liners.
The show didn't take off, however, until the second season when Joan Collins joined the cast as the scheming ex-wife to oil tycoon Blake Carrington, Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan.  Alexis and her never-ending feud with Blake's new wife Krystle (shoulder pad aficionado Linda Evans) provided fodder for drag queens and memes for decades to come.

 

Dynasty also featured one of the first regular openly gay characters on TV, Steven Carrington, albeit in a very sanitized and not completely positive light. Confused over his sexuality, Steven attempted several times to "go straight" before settling into what sociology professor Suzanna Danuta Walters called a vague approximation of gay and proud."
But it's 30 years later and LGBT characters are all over our television screens in myriad complex roles. And with primetime soaps like Empire (aka, the "the black Dynasty")—as well as the primetime catfight—popular with viewers again, the time is ripe for a Dynasty reboot.

 

Gossip Girl creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, Revenge writer-producer Sallie Patrick, and the original Dynasty’s creators, husband-and-wife duo Esther and Richard Shapiro, are overseeing the reboot.

 

According to Deadline News, this new Dynasty will be more diverse, with a Latina Krystle, named (appropriately) Cristal, facing off with Fallon Carrington, Blake's daughter. It's not clear if a new Alexis will disrupt the proceedings, but anyone who's waltzed into a room in a say-something gown with a glass of champagne ready to throw in a rival's face knows there is no Dynasty without Alexis.