“The First Wives Club” is likely coming to the small-screen — the project was picked up to pilot in March — and now we know some of the leading ladies who will top line the potential series. Alyson Hannigan (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Megan Hilty (“Smash”) have both signed on to the reboot, to be written by Rebecca Addelman (“New Girl”). Jenny Bicks (“Sex and the City”) will serve as executive producer.

The series will be based on the Olivia Goldsmith 1992 novel of the same name. The 1996 big-screen adaptation of the book, starring Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton, grossed over $180 million worldwide on a budget of less than $30 million. A sequel never came into fruition because of salary disputes.

TV Land’s version of the story is set in present-day San Francisco, and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, centers on “three friends and former classmates from the 1990s who reconnect after their close friend from college dies in a freak accident.” No word on which actress will play the third friend in the single-camera comedy just yet.

While we’re big fans of both Hannigan and Hilty, we’re disappointed that the series has opted to make the leads dramatically younger than they are in the film version of the story: 20 years ago, when the film opened, Midler, Hawn, and Keaton were all 50 years old. Hannigan is 42, and Hilty is 35. Older women are seriously underrepresented on-screen, and “The First Wives Club” was a rare chance to see women over 45 front and center. It’s like TV Land
cast “The First Wives Club” with second wives.

Hannigan, whose credits include “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and the “American Pie” franchise, will play Maggie, “a bright but frustrated” English professor and wannabe poet who “struggles to put excitement back into her flagging marriage.” When the college friend dies, Maggie is inspired to change her own life, “starting with leaving her husband and tackling life with a renewed sense of adventure.”

Hilty will portray Kim, “a formerly successful actress who ‘aged out’ of Hollywood. Needy and vulnerable, she works hard at staying fit and gorgeous, still hoping for that breakout role, while doing cheesy commercials. Divorced, with an eight-year-old son, Kim is happy to reconnect with old friends.”Hilty’s recent gigs include guest spots on “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce” and “The Good Wife.”