Fate: The Winx Saga

Premise

Bloom, a fairy with fire powers, enrolls at a magical boarding school in the Otherworld called Alfea. She shares a suite with Stella, a light fairy; Aisha, a water fairy; Terra, an earth fairy; and Musa, a mind fairy. With the help of her friends, Bloom starts to learn more about her past. Meanwhile, ancient creatures called the Burned Ones return to the Otherworld and threaten everyone at Alfea.

Cast and characters

Main

Abigail Cowen as Bloom, a fire fairy with the power of the dragon flame who discovers that she is a changeling. She was raised on Earth by adoptive human parents until her powers manifest and she enrolls at Alfea to learn control and discover her origins.

Hannah van der Westhuysen as Stella, a light fairy and the Princess of Solaria who was raised by her icy mother Queen Luna.

Precious Mustapha as Aisha, a water fairy from Andros with a practical mindset, a moral compass and need to follow rules.

Eliot Salt as Terra Harvey, an earth fairy with plant speciality. She was raised at Alfea and is knowledgeable about the Otherworld.

Elisha Applebaum as Musa, a mind fairy who feels other people's emotions. She tries to keep emotional distance from others to avoid being overwhelmed by their thoughts.

Danny Griffin as Sky, one of the most skilled specialists and the son of Andreas of Eraklyon. The star of his class, he was raised by specialist instructor Saul Silva.

Sadie Soverall as Beatrix, an air fairy who can manipulate electricity. She is interested in Alfea's dark history and is Andreas' adoptive daughter.

Freddie Thorp as Riven, a nonchalant and flirty specialist who is Sky's best friend.

Eva Birthistle as Vanessa Peters, she is Bloom's human adoptive mother and is covered in burn scars because of an incident where Bloom lost control of her powers (season 1)

Robert James-Collier as Saul Silva, the specialist instructor at Alfea, and Sky's adoptive parent as well as mentor.

Eve Best as Farah Dowling, the headmistress of Alfea and one of the most powerful fairies of the Otherworld whose main goal is to protect her students from threats beyond Alfea's boundary.

Recurring

Josh Cowdery as Mike Peters, Vanessa's husband and Bloom's adoptive father (season 1)

Alex Macqueen (season 1) / Daniel Betts (season 2) as Professor Ben Harvey, a botany teacher and greenhouse worker at Alfea, who is Terra's and Sam's father

Kate Fleetwood as Queen Luna, the authoritarian queen of Solaria and Stella's mother

Leah Minto as Kat, a specialist

Sean Sagar as Marco, an air fairy and Alfea graduate who is now a teacher

Sarah Jane Seymour as Noura, a specialist at Alfea

Pom Boyd as Doris (season 1), the dinner lady at Alfea

Harry Michell as Callum Hunter (season 1), Dowling's assistant

Jayden Revri as Devin (season 2), a mind fairy who is attacked by scrapers

JJ Battell as Luke (season 2), a specialist

Shameem Ahmad as Bavani Selvarajah (season 2), commander of Solaria's royal army

Episodes

Production

Season 1

The idea for a live-action adaptation of Winx Club dates back to 2011. Winx Club creator Iginio Straffi first proposed a live version in May 2011, several months after Viacom became a co-owner of his studio Rainbow and started financing his projects. At the Ischia Global Fest in 2013, Straffi stated that he was still planning a production "with the Winx in flesh and blood, played by real actors. Sooner or later it will be done." Straffi had only worked on animated productions at the time, so he transitioned his focus to live action, working as a producer for Nickelodeon's live-action show Club 57.

In February 2016, Iginio Straffi mentioned that a live-action movie concept was being considered in partnership with Hollywood Gang Productions, but the project never proceeded. In March 2018, the idea was revisited as a television series after Netflix ordered a young-adult version for its streaming service. Straffi was involved in the early planning stages, and he declined a suggestion from Netflix for the male characters to be given larger roles.

After a pilot episode was scripted, Nickelodeon's American crew members from the cartoon, including Bloom's voice actress, Molly Quinn, travelled to meet the Fate production team and review the script. Francesco Artibani, one of the Italian writers of the animated version, was brought in to read the storyline. Rainbow's Joanne Lee oversaw the first season as an executive producer.

The writers behind Fate are entirely new to the Winx franchise, and they were recruited from teen dramas like The Vampire Diaries. Brian Young, who worked on seven seasons of The Vampire Diaries, is the creator and showrunner of Fate: The Winx Saga. According to an interview with The Guardian, Young chose to "ditch the look" of the cartoon Winx fairies, who have big eyes and sparkling outfits. He said, "Look, again, I'm a massive manga anime fan... but nobody looks like that." Some episodes of the first season were directed by Lisa James Larsson and Hannah Quinn.

Casting calls were held in August 2019. Abigail Cowen was announced to be headlining the series as Bloom in September 2019. "Bloom is a fire fairy who grew up in the first world, so she did not grow up in the other world. And she finds out, kind of by accident, that she has these powers," said Cowen.

Season 2

On 18 February 2021, Netflix renewed the series for a second season to consist of eight episodes. "The six episodes in season one only scratched the surface of this incredibly rich world and the powerful fairies who inhabit it. As Bloom's story continues to evolve, I can't wait for you to learn even more about Aisha, Stella, Terra, and Musa! And you never know who might show up at Alfea next term…" said showrunner Brian Young. The second season, which ultimately consisted of seven episodes, released on 16 September 2022.

Young revealed the audience can expect Icy and Darcy, two of the Trix trio, if the show gets renewed for a season three.

Young added, "The benefit of a season 2 show is it gives you the ability to sort of expand the things that made season 1 great. We had more second-unit days, we had more VFX, more everything to be completely honest. We were able to really make the VFX sing to make the show feel like it's the best version of itself that it can be." Visual Effects supervisor David Houghton said, "In COVID times, it is difficult to rally as many extras as you would normally be able to. With some VFX help and some clever filming, we're able to fill out our world."

On Terra's coming out moment, Salt said, "I was told it was going to happen quite early on in Season 1. So I knew that whole time, and I kept it quiet-ish. It's so important, now more than ever, to see queer joy depicted on screen. In a setting where there's so much else going on, it was nice to put all of that aside for a moment to say that this is great." Young added, "Having Terra not be a canon character from the series gave us a little more leeway with her on the show. Audiences need to see people struggling, then coming out, then having a group of friends loving and supporting them. There's wish fulfillment in that."

On 20 July 2021, Paulina Chávez, Brandon Grace and Éanna Hardwicke were announced to be joining the series's second season as Flora, Grey and Sebastian. Chávez said about Flora, "She's very much a person that cares about people a lot, and that's what makes her so easily lovable. She really controls the room when she's in it, and that's something that I had to learn to do. I'm a little shy." She further recalled, "I remember when they actually announced it and there was a comment just like, 'Guys, she's Mexican. We won.'" Chávez said, "This is a big win for the Latino community. I'm in Ireland, what the hell?! Who would've thought this girl from El Paso would be here? It's pretty cool." Despite the whitewashing controversy, Applebaum returned as Musa.

Cancellation

On November 1, 2022, Brian Young announced that Netflix decided not to order another season, leaving the series on an unresolved cliffhanger.

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 40% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 5.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Flat, flimsy, and forgettable, Fate: The Winx Saga is a fantastical flop that fails to capture the magic of its source material."

Caroline Framke of Variety criticized the series for relying too much on clichés and wrote that "while adapted from an animated show about friends that was largely targeted at pre-teens, it takes a page out of the Riverdale book by giving everything an ominous sheen of sexy intrigue". Joel Keller from Decider urged the audience to skip the series, stating that "while there's nothing inherently terrible about Fate: The Winx Saga, there's nothing about it that stands out. Also, do we need yet another dark and gritty remake of a beloved kids' series?" Deirdre Molumby from Entertainment.ie praised the cast but criticized the plot and the poor CGI quality.

Petrana Radulovic of Polygon wrote that "Fate: The Winx Saga does create a compelling, nuanced plot. The worldbuilding is exciting, offering a spin on the animated series' world of fairies and non-magical, sword-wielding Specialists." Melissa Camacho of Common Sense Media criticized the diversity of the cast along with the teen angst shown in the series, but wrote that "Fate: The Winx Saga offers a story world that is easy to escape into, and easy to get caught up in, if you're looking for a fantastical universe to explore."

Viewership

The show peaked at #2 on Nielsen's Streaming Charts on the week of 25 January with 918 million minutes in viewership, trailing only Bridgerton at 936 million. On 20 April 2021, Netflix reported that 57 million of its subscribers watched the first season of the series during the first 28 days of its release.

Controversy

The series received backlash over the casting of Applebaum as Musa, who was coded as East Asian and whose character design was based on Lucy Liu, as well as the apparent replacement of Flora, who was coded as Latina and whose character design was based on Jennifer Lopez, with a new white character named Terra.

In response to the backlash, Abigail Cowen said she was not involved in the casting but hoped that Flora would be introduced in the second season, saying "I do think diversity both in front of and behind the camera is vital and much-needed throughout the industry and internationally. So I think it's important that we are having these conversations." Brian Young has said Terra is the cousin of Flora, leaving Flora's inclusion in the show a possibility. Elisha Applebaum, who plays Musa, also addressed the controversy. "It's really sad to see that fans were upset with the casting. I wasn't involved in the casting but I hope that what they've seen and how I've portrayed Musa was to their liking," Elisha told Digital Spy.

Responding to the backlash to the casting whitewashing, Iginio Straffi said that Rainbow S.p.A. demanded that the ethnic diversity of Winx Club be respected in the live-action adaptation, but that Netflix chose to make different casting choices.

Tie-in media

Novels

On 2 February 2021, a novelization of the first season, titled The Fairies' Path, was released. It features bonus scenes and character backstories not seen on the show. It was written by Irish author Sarah Rees Brennan under the pen name Ava Corrigan.

On 16 August 2022, another novel, titled Lighting the Fire, was released. It features an original story not seen in the show, set before the events of the first season. It was again written by Sarah Rees Brennan, this time under her real name.

Graphic novels

In February 2023, it was announced that Rainbow had partnered with American independent comic book publisher Mad Cave Studios to publish graphic novels based on the Winx brand. It was later specified that Mad Cave's young adult imprint Maverick would publish a series of graphic novels resuming the story of Fate: The Winx Saga after its unresolved cliffhanger. The first volume in the series, titled Dark Destiny, written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and illustrated by Christianne Gillenardo-Goudreau, was released as an ebook on 30 July 2024 and in paperback on 13 August. The second volume titled The Shadow War was released on 22 July 2025. Cuartero-Briggs returned to write the story while Valeria Peri took over as the illustrator. The story is set to conclude with the third volume, Battle for the OtherWorld, to be released on 8 September 2026, with both Cuartero-Briggs and Peri returning.