[Update 1:50 pm]:Lea Michele, who played Rachel Berry in the series, has become the first cast member set to reprise her role for the Disney+ series, according to Variety. There aren’t too many new details in the report, other than one anonymous insider saying, “She’s in,” and another saying, “It’s still early-ish days, but it feels good and we’re happy to get the band back together.” Obviously, we have no idea at this point whether Michele will be a focal point in the reboot, a small cameo, or something in between. In the flash-forward sequence the end of Glee‘s original run, Rachel had achieved her dreams, becoming a major Broadway star, ending up with Jonathan Groff’s Jesse St. James, and winning a Tony Award in 2020—a ceremony that never actually happened due to lockdown.
[Original story]:The 2010s are back, baby. On the heels of the news that HBO would be bringing backGirls for a few new, decidedly more middle-aged adventures, Disney+ and Hulu have validated the threats that Ryan Murphy issued at the premiere ofAmerican Horror Storyseason 13 a few weeks ago. A revival of the series has been ordered, perThe Hollywood Reporter, with 20th Century Television returning to produce it. And that’s all the confirmed information we have at this point.
Back when Murphy teased the news, he suggested that he had spoken to “around 10 of the original cast members” about coming back, who had questions but were ultimately described as “enthusiastic.” That being said, if you’d like to indulge in a bit of gossip, TMZreported after Murphy’s announcement that there was some bad blood from some in the cast, who described creating the original series—and then taking the show on an arena tour after its first and second seasons—as grueling, while Murphy and Fox profited far more than the cast did. There were also concerns from these anonymous insiders that Murphy would show favoritism toward Lea Michele, who played Rachel Berry, the de facto lead of the New Directions. Meanwhile, Jane Lynch, who played champion cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester in the original series, apparently indicated last month that no one reached out to her, but that she would be on board for more.
Is this a good idea? Well, let’s look at some facts. Gleeran for six wildly inconsistent seasons on Fox, from 2009 until 2015. The show often tackled hot-button social issues and covered the biggest showtunes and pop songs of the day—which, obviously, included a ton of Katy Perry. Multiple of its original cast members have died in tragic circumstances, and, since the show ended, Ryan Murphy has lent his name to a slate of wildly inconsistent projects, which have included The People v. O.J. Simpsonand The Assassination Of Gianni Versace—projects that earned Emmys for Courtney B. Vance, Sterling K. Brown, Sarah Paulson, and Gleealum Darren Criss—and All’s Fair. There’s also a whole bunch of new music we imagine the New Directions would be champing at the bit to perform. When we last heard from them, no one yet knew what Hamiltonor Chappell Roan were. To quote the latter, good luck, babe.
