It’s ABC’s turn to get in on the renewal/pilot order fun, as the network has renewed three dramas and ordered a few others to series.  Briefly:

  • ABC has renewed the drama series Scandal (duh), Modern Family (more duh), Once Upon a Time, Grey’s Anatomy, Castle, Revenge, The Goldbergs, The Middle, and freshman show Resurrection to return next season.
  • The network has also ordered three new dramas to series: the Viola Davis-fronted legal thriller How to Get Away with Murder from creator Shonda Rhimes, the racially charged American Crime from 12 Years a Slave scribe John Ridley, and the alien-invasion show The Whispers from executive producer Steven Spielberg.
  • On the comedy side, the pilots for Anthony Anderson’s Black-ish, the Karen Gillan-fronted Selfie, the romantic comedy Manhattan Love Story, and creator Dan Fogelman’s (The Neighbors) musical fairy tale Galavant have been ordered to series.

Hit the jump for synopsis and casting info for the new series.

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Here are the synopses for ABC's new series, via TV Line.

How to Get Away with Murder

EPs | Peter Nowalk (Grey’s Anatomy), Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers

CAST | Viola Davis, Matt McGorry (Orange Is the New Black), Liza Weil (Scandal, Gilmore Girls), Aja Naomi King (The Black Box), Charlie Weber (90210), Katie Findlay (The Carrie Diaries), Billy Brown (Hostages), Tom Verica (American Dreams), Jack Falahee, Alfred Enoch, Karla Souza

A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor who become entangled in a murder plot that will rock the entire university and change the course of their lives.

American Crime

EPs | John Ridley (The Wanda Sykes Show, Third Watch), Michael McDonald

CAST | Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Timothy Hutton (Leverage), Benito Martinez (Sons of Anarchy), W. Earl Brown (Deadwood), Penelope Ann Miller (Mistresses), Richard Cabral

Set in California’s Central Valley, it centers on a racially charged murder and the subsequent trial, which are examined through the personal lives of the players involved. The case takes on greater meaning in the community, bringing to the forefront America’s hardened views on race, class and gender politics.

The Whispers

EPs | Steven Spielberg, Justin Falvey, Darryl Frank, Dawn Olmstead

CAST | Lily Rabe, Barry Sloane, Milo Ventimiglia, Derek Webster, Brianna Brown, Catalina Denis, Kylie Rogers, Kyle Harrison Breitkopf

A drama about an alien invasion, in which earth’s enemies possess children’s bodies to take down humanity.

Black-ish

EPs | Kenya Barris, Anthony Anderson, Larry Wilmore, Laurence Fishburne, Helen Sugland, Tom Russo, Peter Principato, Paul Young, Brian Dobbins

CAST | Anthony Anderson (Guys With Kids), Tracee Ellis Ross (Girlfriends), Yara Shahidi (Scandal), recurring star Laurence Fishburne (Hannibal)

An upper-middle class black man struggles to raise his children with a sense of cultural identity despite constant contradictions and obstacles coming from his liberal wife, old-school father and his own assimilated, color-blind kids. 

Galavant

EPs | Dan Fogelman (The Neighbors)

CAST| Joshua Sasse (Rogue), Vinnie Jones (Elementary), Karen David, Mallory Jansen, Luke Youngblood (Community), guest star Timothy Omundson (Psych)

A musical fairy tale that centers on handsome Prince Galavant and his quest for revenge over the king who stole his one true love.

Selfie

EP | Emily Kapnek (Suburgatory)

CAST | Karen Gillan (Doctor Who), John Cho (Sleepy Hollow), David Harewood (Homeland), Tim Peper, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Allyn Rachel

A self-obsessed twentysomething woman is more concerned with “likes” than being liked. After suffering a very public and humiliating breakup, she becomes the subject of a viral video and suddenly has more social media “followers” than she ever imagined — but for all the wrong reasons. She enlists the help of a marketing expert at her company to help repair her tarnished image.

Manhattan Love Story

EPs | Peter Traugott, Jeff Lowell, Robin Schwartz, Rachel Kaplan and Jon Liebman

Cast | Analeigh Tipton, Jake McDorman, Nicolas Wright, Jade Catta-Preta, Chloe Wepper, Kurt Fuller

A romantic comedy that “exposes the differences between men and women through the unfiltered thoughts, and often contradictory actions, of a new couple who have just begun dating.”