We Need To Talk About The Characters Missing From 'Fate: The Winx Saga'
While the distinguished Alfea Academy is the central location for Netflix's new series, Fate: The Winx Saga, plenty of viewers were already dreaming of enrolling prior to the series' release on Jan. 22. Why? It turns out, the new show is actually a remake of an old, animated fave. However, longtime Winx fans were not thrilled to see that a few faces were missing from the adaptation. So, uh, where are Tecna and Flora in Fate: The Winx Saga? The fairies seemed to have vanished.
ICYMI, Fate: The Winx Saga is a live-action reimagining of an Italian animated series called Winx Club. The series ran for four years in the early 2000s before being picked up by Nickelodeon, where it had an eight-season stint. This means many fans were already super familiar with the plot and the characters when they started watching Netflix's new show.
What they weren't expecting, however, were the major creative changes that came with the retelling of Winx. Not only is the 2021 version much darker and, ahem, sexier than the original (probably because Winx Saga's creator is Brian Young, who also produced The Vampire Diaries), but it's also missing a few key characters as well.
The new Netflix series still follows Bloom (Abigail Cowen from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina), a fire fairy who recently discovers her powers and enrolls at Alfea Academy to learn how to harness her skills. It's there that she meets her roommates/future besties, many of whom fans knew from Winx Club. Stella (Hannah van der Westhuysen), Aisha (Precious Mustapha), and Musa (Elisha Applebaum) where all part of the fairy crew Bloom rolled with in the original cartoon, but two key members — Flora and Tecna —are missing.
In Winx Saga, a new fairy named Terra was added as a key member of Bloom's squad, seemingly in place of Flora. (In Season 1, Terra briefly mentions her cousin named Flora, but she doesn't actually appear on the show.) This led to an outcry from fans who think the new show is "whitewashing" Winx's cast of fairies. That's because the animated series' version of Flora was widely believed to be Latinx, and the actor who plays her apparent replacement, Eliot Salt, is white. (Similarly, some fans think Applebaum's casting as Musa, who was depicted as East Asian in Winx Club, is also problematic.)
However, this isn't so say Flora or Tecna will never be part of Winx Saga. In fact, it sounds like the show's star, Cowen, is lobbying for the inclusion of at least one of the fairies in the potential Season 2. "Flora is actually not in our series ... In the first season, she’s not. Eliot’s character is actually Terra, who was created specifically for the show," Cowen told The Wrap on Jan. 21. "If we are lucky enough to get a second season, I think Flora would be brought in."
As of Jan. 25, there's no news about a Season 2, so fans will just have to hang on to their fairy dust to see if Flora and Tecna make an appearance in Netflix's series.
Fate: The Winx Saga Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix.
