King of the Hill co-creator Greg Daniels said the reboot series isn’t likely to make it to Hulu before 2025.
The series has long been in pre-production but is trucking along slowly due to a pause in production stemming from the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year. The creators worked on a couple episodes before the writers strike began, and did table readings of two episodes. But since the team got back to work late last year, the team has been “rewriting the third episode or the fourth episode and gettig notes on the first,” according to Daniels. He ventured the show could debut on Hulu in 2025, but no official date has been confirmed.
King of the Hill is one of several series getting reboots, revivals, and re-imagingings in recent years. The series was greenlit for a revival last year, along with the popular animated science fiction series Futurama which launched on Hulu last July, and Frasier. Other series are in the works, including Ally McBeal, The Flintstones, Bewitched, The Office, The X-Files, and Fawlty Towers to name a few. Peacock also has a new Battlestar Galactica series in the works, which has seen more lengthy pauses in development than King of the Hill.
Reboots and revivals can be tricky. Although not the first, Netflix sparked the trend when it brought back Arrested Development after the series had been cancelled in 2006 by FOX as its first venture into original programing. The streamer expanded its collection to include The Gilmore Girls extra season decades after the series ended, which was not well received by fans. It can be difficult to capture the original vibe of a long retired series, especially when the original cast and writers have departed the project or passed away.
King of the Hill has already lost two original cast members. The show lost Brittney Murphy, who voiced Luanne, in 2009 shortly before the series finale and in August Johnny Hardwick, voice of Dale Gribble, passed away. Hardwick had already completed a couple episodes.
The series is also moving forward without Toby Huss as the voice of Kahn. In November, Daniels said he wasn’t certain if Kahn would join the Hills for the revival, but did confirm the series will take place 15 years after the series ended, showing Bobby Hill grown up.
Mike Judge will return as Hank Hill, along with Kathy Majimy as Peggy, Pamela Adlon as Bobby, and Stephen Root as Bill.
The original King of the Hill series is available to stream on Hulu.