Ryan Murphy has finished the Glee reboot script. Now he's ringing round the original cast.
Murphy wrote it with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the pair who ran Glee's first two seasons. No network is attached yet, and none of the cast has read a page.
After years of speculation, there's finally some proper movement on the Glee reboot – and it sounds like it's a lot further along than fans had reason to hope for. Ryan Murphy, the man behind the original, has actually finished writing a new script, and he's given an update on where things stand with the old cast. If you've been quietly wondering whether this was all just nostalgia-driven rumour, this is the first solid sign something's cooking.
The Script Is Done – For Real
So, Murphy let it slip to Entertainment Tonight that he's just finished a new Glee script. Not a first draft scribbled on a napkin sort of deal, either – he's gone and co-written it with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the original trio responsible for Glee's first two seasons back on Fox. For those keeping score, that's the creative line-up most fans agree were responsible for the show at its best.
Here's how Murphy described it to Entertainment Tonight: "They all had a lot of questions, but they all were very enthusiastic about the idea."
So, to cut through the PR: Murphy's reached out to roughly 10 members of the old cast and, by his account, everyone's at least very keen – though none of them have actually seen the script yet. He was pretty candid about not wanting to jump the gun with the cast. Basically, he wants a stack of scripts done before he hands anything over, to see how people really feel about it before they dive in. Apparently, it's that important to him, given how tight-knit the core group supposedly was back in the day.
Where's It Headed?
The reboot is being developed with 20th Television (again, like old times), but there's no streaming service or network attached yet – so don't expect cast list reveals and launch dates anytime soon.
Murphy told ET about his process: "I vowed to myself that I wanted to write a couple of them to see what people think, particularly the cast, cause we were very close when we were making it."
This all comes after Murphy was talking to People (just in July) about Glee's oddly strong hold on new, younger viewers in the streaming age. At the time, even he sounded surprised: younger fans are still discovering the old episodes and talking about it online, which seems to be part of why he's now taking another crack at it. Two months later, here we are, with a script written and calls going out.
- Glee ran on Fox from 2009 to 2015, totalling six seasons.
- The story followed teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) and a high school glee club making their way through national competitions – with plenty of pop covers along the way.
- Murphy, Falchuk and Brennan were the creative force behind it all; the series picked up two Golden Globes for Murphy at its peak.