Glee is officially returning more than a decade after its original run ended, with Disney+ and Hulu ordering a new version of the musical comedy from Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. The revival arrives as television networks and streaming services keep revisiting familiar franchises, with Scrubs' successful return offering one possible blueprint for turning nostalgia into a series with a future. For Glee, the challenge will be finding enough continuity to bring longtime viewers back while making room for characters and stories that can appeal to an audience that may have discovered the show years after it left Fox. 20th Television will produce the new series, though it has not announced details about its plot or setting.
Before the series order, Murphy said he had been in contact with about 10 members of the original cast after writing a script with Falchuk and Brennan. At least one major piece is now falling into place. Lea Michele will reprise her role as Rachel Berry, Variety reported Wednesday, citing multiple sources.
Heather Morris, who played Brittany Pierce, and Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans, also posted social media messages that appeared to suggest they will be involved, though Variety stopped short of reporting their returns as formally confirmed. That mix of established characters and a potential new generation matters because Glee has tried something similar before. Beginning with its fourth season, the original series introduced younger students at McKinley High while continuing the stories of graduates including Rachel and Kurt Hummel.
The balancing act proved difficult as the show moved between its high-school roots and the adult lives of characters who had outgrown them. Eleven years after the finale, the creators have another opportunity to solve that problem. And they need look no further for an example.
Scrubs returned to ABC this year, 16 years after the original ended, with Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, and Donald Faison returning as J.D., Elliot, and Turk. Instead of freezing its original characters at the age audiences remembered them, the revival brought them back to Sacred Heart Hospital at different stages of their careers and put them alongside a younger group of doctors. The approach established continuity without requiring the returning cast to simply recreate their earlier stories.
J.D., once a young doctor dependent on mentors like Dr. Cox, returned as a senior doctor responsible for the doctors coming up behind him. That gave the revival a reason to revisit the same fictional institution while changing what its established characters do within it.
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