Andre Agassi Serves as EP as Prime Video Orders Julie Plec Tennis Drama 'Rally' to Series

Prime Video has ordered the young-adult tennis drama "Rally" to series, with eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi on board as executive producer. Julie Plec, showrunner of "The Vampire Diaries," will write and run the show. Production comes from Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group, in association with Entertainment 360 and Amazon MGM Studios.

The stakes are junior-tennis-sized, which is to say: considerable.

What is 'Rally' about?

Per the official synopsis, "Rally" takes place "at a hyper-competitive elite tennis academy," where "ambitious young players discover that the loneliest sport in the world demands sacrificing the very connections that might be the only thing that makes winning worth it."

That's a familiar Plec register — ensemble casts, romantic entanglements, ambition curdling into betrayal — transplanted from Mystic Falls to a baseline. The sport changes. The emotional machinery doesn't.

Who is making it?

The executive producer roster runs five deep:

• Julie Plec — showrunner and writer, producing alongside Emily Cummins for My So-Called Company
• Emily Cummins — executive producer, My So-Called Company
• Guymon Casady — Entertainment 360
• Justin Gimelstob — former pro player and producer
• Andre Agassi — tennis legend, bringing what the team calls an authentic inside view of the tour life

Plec has an overall deal at Universal Television. Erin Underhill, president of Universal TV, called the show a natural extension of that relationship. "Julie has an exceptional talent for crafting emotionally rich, irresistibly addictive worlds," Underhill said in a statement. "'Rally' delivers the dynamic relationships, ambition and heart that make Julie's storytelling so compelling."

Where did the idea come from?

Producer Guymon Casady traced the project to his own household. "The inspiration for 'Rally' came from a deeply personal place – watching my kids train and navigate the intense pressure, dedication, and heartbreak of elite junior tennis at the IMG Academy," Casady said.

He added that building the series "alongside a master storyteller like Julie Plec, and to ground it in the unmatched, authentic perspective of a true legend like Andre Agassi, is a remarkable privilege."

Agassi, for his part, kept his remarks modest. "I am eager for Justin and I to lend our experiences to help the incredible 'Rally' team," he said. "At this stage of our lives having an endeavor that allows us to work with the best in class in what they do and hopefully contribute to the process, is an exciting challenge."

He closed with the standard he'll be judged against: "We are all aligned in creating an entertaining and most importantly, authentic look at a beautifully complicated sport."

Why tennis, and why now?

Executive producer Emily Cummins framed the appeal as split between the court and everything around it. "People are as intrigued by the life of the players as much as the thrills on the court and it's exciting to explore so many stories through the incredible characters Julie created," Cummins said. "Working with Andre, Justin and the entire team has been a dream come true."

She also admitted to being a major tennis fan. "This has been the most fun we've had at work in a while," she said.

The series joins a growing shelf of sports-adjacent dramas treating elite athletics as a pressure cooker for character study rather than a backdrop for montage. With a direct-to-series order, a network-backed studio, and a legend's name on the call sheet, "Rally" skips the pilot gauntlet entirely. Prime Video hasn't announced a premiere date, casting, or episode count — but with Agassi promising authenticity and Plec promising heartbreak, the academy is open for enrollment.