Based on a 1990 novel of the same name by H. G. "Buzz" Bissinger and a 2004 film adaptation of said novel, Peter Berg's series "Friday Night Lights" is, ostensibly, about a scrappy Texas football team who overcome the odds after losing its star player to a traumatic injury right out of the gate. (This isn't a spoiler, you guys; it happens in the pilot.) It's actually about the people living in Dillon, Texas, and the football of it all is simply a way to bring all the characters together. With Kyle
Chandler as the unflappable and stern but big-hearted Coach Eric Taylor — whose loyal and loving wife Tami Taylor (Connie Britton) by his side along the way — the series became a massive critical success, despite the fact that it never drew a humongous audience during its original run, particularly after its second season was affected by the 2007-08 writer's strike.
In the years since "Friday Night Lights" came to a close in 2011, it's become a beloved classic, and several of its actors — including Jesse Plemons, Zach Gilford, Jurnee Smollett, and Michael B. Jordan — have become massive stars, so it makes sense that a reboot is definitely happening. As far as Berg is concerned, it's the right time, and the themes of the show are evergreen.
"Football's only grown in its relevance in communities all over the country," Berg told Esquire in an interview about the upcoming reboot. "So, the core themes of 'Friday Night Lights' —that were revealed by Buzz Bissinger when he wrote the book—are very much present. There's just so many new elements, so we want to look at that. And if certain cast members come back, have appearances, that's great. But if 'Friday Night Lights' works, it'll be because it works as a reinvention." So what do longtime fans of the series and newcomers to "Friday Night Lights" need to know about the forthcoming reboot?
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When Will The Friday Night Lights Reboot Come Out, And Where Will It Air?
First things first: the "Friday Night Lights" reboot will air on Peacock, which makes sense when you consider that NBC aired the first few seasons of the original series. (NBC and DirecTV teamed up, so to speak, for final seasons, which aired on the latter's proprietary channel, The 101 Network.) When Deadline reported that NBC Universal's streamer would be the exclusive home of the "Friday Night Lights" reboot, the outlet also reported that Netflix was outbid for the project.
Original showrunner Jason Katims is coming back, as is Peter Berg, and one of the original show's producers, Brian Grazer. As for a release date, there's not one as of this writing, which makes sense because no major cast members have been announced quite yet either. Let's pivot to that, actually — is anyone from the original cast of "Friday Night Lights" coming back for the reboot?
Who's Starring In The Friday Night Lights Reboot?
Again, as of this writing, no cast members have officially joined the "Friday Night Lights" reboot. Apart from Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Jesse Plemons, Zach Gilford, Jurnee Smollett, and Michael B. Jordan, the original show starred Minka Kelly (as cheerleader Lyla Garrity), Scott Porter (as the aforementioned injured player Jason Street), Taylor Kitsch (as the team's troubled fullback Tim Riggins), Aimee Teegarden (as Eric and Tami's daughter Julie), and Adrianne Palicki (as the hard-headed but smart Dillon teen Tyra Collette), just to name a few.
As recently as January 2025, Kitsch, who recently led the miniseries "American Primeval," weighed in on the possibility of returning as an older Tim. "I'm always flattered," Kitsch said of potentially participating in a reboot during an interview on SiriusXM's show The Spotlight. "Never say never. But I would come in and maybe do something for an episode. [But] I don't want to go and do the whole thing. I'd go and have fun, but I don't want to lead 'Friday Night Lights' or a reboot or anything." With that said, Kitsch also told People Magazine he'd be down for a cameo. As he put it, "If you wanted to put me as a visiting coach with two lines, I probably would do that, just for fun. I think that would be the most I would do, because I love the way we left it."
Britton also commented on a possible reboot in 2021 when she was starring in the first season of "The White Lotus," and she said she simply doesn't think that the original cast will even be necessary. "I don't see them going back into that story, at least with this cast," she said to Entertainment Tonight. "We know we've already had a movie, we already had this TV show, and then if they were to do it again with like, a whole different iteration of it, I don't know. I would think that would be sort of odd." Then, in 2023, Peter Berg said both Chandler and Britton have demurred when he's asked them about a reboot.
"I'll call Kyle Chandler or Connie Britton, who I like so much, and we'll be like, 'Yeah, but why?' It was a great relationship," Berg told Collider in an exclusive interview. "Why take the chance of coming back, and then we end up hating each other and make a really bad movie? It's tricky. It's like going back to a relationship. It doesn't always work."
What Will The Friday Night Lights Reboot Be About?
When you know that the "Friday Night Lights" reboot is simply about a high school football team and not necessarily the Dillon Panthers, it actually makes sense that the original cast might not return outside of potential cameos. When Deadline announced the project, the plot description said the series "will be set following a devastating hurricane, when a ragtag 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."
In that same Esquire interview, Berg was pretty blunt about how much the world has changed since the original series began and ended. "We want to do it with a whole new cast," Berg told the outlet. "Obviously there'll be football in it. But the original show was done a long time ago. There were no cell phones. No social media. It was a very different world, and yet the same values still exist, and the same family dynamics exist."
Thankfully, Kitsch, in the above interview with People Magazine, had some advice for any "Friday Night Lights" rookies. "Take a swing," Kitsch said, speaking to how supportive Berg is on set. "With his process, [Berg] allows you to take swings and fail, and that's why the show came out as good as it was. He doesn't put you in a box, so enjoy the process."
How To Watch The Original Friday Night Lights (And Why You Should)
Unfortunately, as of this writing, "Friday Night Lights" isn't available for "free" on subscription-based streamers. You can rent or buy it on Amazon if you so please, but since the reboot is definitely coming to Peacock, we can hold out hope that, before it starts airing, the original series might find a home there as well.
I'm going to close out with a personal anecdote here. I have nothing against football — I'm from Philadelphia and here, I am legally required to say "go Birds" — but I don't know as much about it as I should, which is to say that a show "about" football isn't typically interesting to me. But "Friday Night Lights" is so good, and you should watch it. Yes, there's an infamously bad plotline involving Jesse Plemons' character Landry Clarke in season 2, but if you can look past that, you'll be as charmed as I was by the interpersonal relationships, the show's emotional highs, and its beautiful storytelling. Please, I implore you: Check out "Friday Night Lights" before the reboot comes out, if you haven't already.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
