“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose!”
That phrase is familiar to all of us who were glued into the drama of Friday Night Lights. The series, which ran from 2006-2011, followed Coach Eric Taylor’s family and his high school football team in the sports-loving town of Dillon, Texas. That fictional small-town setting gave the show a foundation to explore racism, social inequity, family values, and coming-of-age woes. It also was the show that really made me begin to fall for Michael B. Jordan when he came in later to take the star quarterback role at East Dillon High. But that’s a different post. Now, according to Deadline, Friday Night Lights is reportedly getting a reboot under Universal Television, and it’s heading to Peacock. It’s time to turn the bright lights back on and play some football, y’all.
There’s no word on if any of the original cast will come back for this reboot. But it seems there are conversations happening with Friday Night Lights alum, specifically Taylor Kitsch, who played Tim Riggins throughout the show’s run. In a recent interview that we learned about via Deadline (posted below), Kitsch said that he’s been contacted about the reboot but didn’t confirm if he would return. He did have a few things to say about how he would want to return, specifically as Riggins versus a new character that none of us would buy because he is literally Riggins.
“…I would come in and do something, maybe for an episode or something, but I don’t wanna go and do the whole thing,” he said on SiriusXM’s The Spotlight with Jessica Shaw. “I’d go and have fun but I don’t want to lead an FNL reboot or anything. I love the continuously challenging roles and to keep pushing… I would go do maybe play an opposing teams coach or something and be on screen for eight seconds. I would do that.””
There aren’t too many solid details about this series yet. For now, we know that Jason Katims, Pete Berg and Brian Grazer are all returning as its creative team. The Friday Night Lights reboot will supposedly follow a whole new group of characters. We assume it will explore similar themes in an updated setting. It’s not clear if the show will return back to Texas or maybe explore the fervent love of football in another state. We know that Texas is a major football hub but let’s not forget the how many college and NFL players hail from Louisiana, Florida, and other Southern states. But going back to Dillon could show how things have changed—or stayed the same, as small towns often do—over the years. Hopefully, there will be more diversity this time around, too.
Deadline notes that the Friday Night Lights spinoff series “will be set following a devastating hurricane, when a rag-tag high school football team and their damaged, interim coach make an unlikely bid for a Texas High School State Championship and become a beacon of light for their town.” Very interesting.
There’s a lot to chew on in today’s world, including politics, ever-shifting social media, and more. It’s not impossible for previous characters to make a cameo, which would draw in fans of the original series. Bring our beloved coach back, please! We can’t wait to get more information about this one.
Originally published on November 15, 2024.
