Netflix's latest genre TV show, 'Fate: The Winx Saga', has begun filming here in Ireland.

The teenage fantasy series, based on the popular Italian animated franchise, sees a group of five unlikely friends attending Alfea, "a magical boarding school in the Otherworld  where they must learn to master their magical powers while navigating love, rivalries and the monsters that threaten their very existence." So... 'Harry Potter', then?

The animated series first began in 2004, and was hugely popular in Italy, Belgium and France and became a massive franchise with spin-offs, comics, and so on spinning out from it. The live-action series will feature a number of storylines and plots from the original series, albeit transposed into new settings and deeper explorations.

The cast includes a host of upcoming talent, including Abigail Cowen from 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina', Hannah van der Westhuysen, Precious Mustapha, Eliot Salt, Elisha Applebaum, Sadie Soverall, and more besides.

The series is a co-production with Archery Pictures, Rainbow S.p.A. and Viacom International Media Networks. It will film in and around Wicklow, however no release date has been announced for the series on Netflix.