Ryan Murphy’s musical dramedy series Glee is officially getting a reboot, with Disney+ and Hulu announcing production has been greenlit bring the 2010’s cultural phenomenon back to our screens.
Glee premiered on Fox in 2009 and ran for six seasons until its conclusion in 2015, following a group of high school students from Lima, Ohio as they used music to deal with the trials and tribulations of young adulthood.
The show cemented itself as a cultural masterpiece of the time, despite its sometimes controversial attempts at tackling issues of sexuality, race, disability, mental health, teenage pregnancy and domestic violence, to name a few.
Covers of songs such as “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Teenage Dream,” “Defying Gravity and “Valerie” became cult favourites among viewers as the show introduced a variety of genres to new fan bases.
The music from Glee remains popular today as more than 4 million listeners still return to it on Spotify each month.
Some dedicated followers even argue that the Glee cast did it better than the original musicians when it comes to some of the show’s biggest covers.
The original cast of the show included global stars Lea Michelle, Cory Monteith, Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, Dianna Agron, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Amber Riley, Naya Rivera, Heather Morris, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Harry Shum Jr., Chord Overstreet, Mark Salling and more.
Details on who is returning to the reboot have only been partially confirmed , with Disney+ only stating that the show will be produced by 20th Television and will air on Hulu and Disney+.
However, creator Ryan Murphy recently hinted at the reboot in an interview with Entertainment Tonight where he confirmed a script had been written with collaborators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan.
“I’ve been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members,” Murphy confirmed.
“It’s very sweet, and they all had a lot of questions, but they all were very enthusiastic about the idea.”
Just weeks earlier, Lea Michele spoke to E! News about reprising her role of leading lady Rachel Berry.
“I love ‘Glee.’ I will always love ‘Glee.’ I love Ryan Murphy. It just holds such a special place in my heart for me… I will follow Ryan wherever he goes,” Michele said.
Chris Colfer also spoke out recently about the possibility of returning to his role of generational gay icon Kurt Hummel, telling Bustle a reboot would be difficult after the deaths of close friends among the original Glee cast.
“It was a really tough show to do, and it would be really hard to do it now that Naya [Rivera] is gone,” he said.
“But I do know that Glee fans would probably come after me with pitchforks and jazz hands if I said no. So I don’t know, but hopefully I’ll have more information and I can actually think about it.”
Rivera, who played loud-mouthed Santana Lopez on the show, died in a tragic drowning accident in 2020 at only 33-years-old while saving her young son.
She was the third death of the Glee cast following Cory Monteith’s death from an overdose in 2013, and Mark Sailing’s death by suicide in 2018 after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.
Confirmed returnees to the series include Heather Morris, aka Brittany S Pierce, who posted a confirmation to her Instagram with a photo of her character dressed in the iconic “Cheerios” uniform.
Dianna Agron posted on Instagram at the same time as the official announcement but made no reference to her character Quinn Fabray, but Michele and Jenna Ushkowitz both liked the post.
Jane Lynch reposted the casting news on her Instagram story, confirming her reprisal of Sue Sylvester.
Kevin McHale who played Artie Abrams replied to a 2020 post from Genius announcing that Drake had passed the cast of Glee to have the most Billboard Hot 100 hits of all time.
“Challenge accepted,” he wrote.
Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans, also confirmed his return by posting “Reunited and it feels so good” on X, before responding to his own thread with a photo of himself and Darren Criss who played Blaine Anderson on the show.
Glee teacher Mr Will Schuester is not expected to appear in the revised series as actor Matthew Morrison has reportedly not been approached but remains “hopeful that he will be part of the project”.
Notable cast members Amber Riley (Mercedes Jones), Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel) and Harry Shum Jr (Mike Chang) have not yet reacted to the announcement but the trio remain friends with Riley and Colfer spotted in the Dancing with the Stars studio supporting Shum in recent weeks.
