Glee creator Ryan Murphy threatens to reboot series: ‘There’s been enough time’
Gleeks rise up. Creator Ryan Murphy has floated the idea for a reboot of his popular TV series, Glee, seven years after it came off air.
The musical TV series has an extremely rocky legacy, with memes galore, numerous controversies, conspiracy theories and tragic deaths surrounding it.
First coming out in 2009 with a host of queer characters and plot lines, Glee has become a regular reference point for LGBTQ+ television and Murphy’s most enduring series (for good or bad).
He revealed his reboot idea during an interview on Glee stars Kevin McHale (Artie Abrams) and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) podcast And That’s What You REALLY Missed.
“I’m at the phase now with that show where it’s like, well, there’s been enough time,” Murphy began.
“Like, maybe we should really re-examine it as a brand. You know, should we do a reboot of it in some way? Should we do a Broadway musical of it in some way?
“It’s sort of like an interesting legacy that I’m interested in doing in a positive way after sort of pausing for a while. But I don’t know. I just love what it says and what it did. And there will never be in my life another Glee, anything close to it, in terms of me feeling so close to it.”
Despite his ambitions to maybe see the culturally iconic musical series come back on screen or stage, he also spoke about his regrets at carrying on the series after lead actor Cory Monteith (Finn Hudson) died.
Jane Lynch (L), Lea Michele, Matthew Morrison and Ryan Murphy (R) in 2013. (Vera Anderson/WireImage)
The Glee star suddenly died from a drug overdose before the fifth season of the show, changing the course of the final two seasons and having a tribute episode dedicated to him.
“If I had to do it again, we would’ve stopped for a very long time and probably not come back.
“Because you can’t really recover from something like that. It wasn’t a normal death where someone is sick, and you can see them. It happened so quickly with no warning,” Murphy explained.
It does raise the question of how a reboot would even be possible since the show has been haunted by cast deaths, including Monteith, Naya Rivera and Mark Sailing.
And by controversies, not least the accusations of racism made by co-stars Amber Riley (Mercedes) and Samantha Ware (Jane Hayward) toward Lea Michele (Rachel Berry).
As for a stage production, Glee has already transformed its plot into reality after Lea Michele followed in the footsteps of her character by landing the role of Fanny Brice on Broadway.
Despite an actual reboot still being a very hypothetical idea, Discovery+ recently confirmed they were producing a behind-the-scenes Glee documentary.
The three-part docuseries will reportedly explore cast members’ stories from their time on set and all the messiness that entailed.