It Looks Like King Of The Hill Might Be Coming Back
Fire up your Vogner CharKing Imperial because a revival of King of the Hill could be on its way.
Mike Judge and Greg Daniels' animated comedy starred mild-mannered propane salesman Hank Hill (Judge), his strong-willed wife Peggy (Kathy Najimy), and their self-proclaimed class clown son Bobby (Pamela Adlon). The show focused on their lives as a middle-class conservative family living in the fictional small town of Arlen, Texas at the turn of the 21st century. King of the Hill premiered in 1997 and concluded its 13 season run in 2009.
Back in 2017, there were rumblings that a revival was in the works. At the time, CEO and Chairperson of Fox Television Group Dana Walden said, "We had a very preliminary conversation given what's going on in the country, I think they had a point of view about how those characters would respond...I hope to revisit it."
Those particular talks may not have amounted to much then, but the effort to revive the series appears to be gaining new momentum. During a Reddit AMA (via TechRadar), TV writer and former King of the Hill executive producer Brent Forrester was asked about the current status of a reboot for the series. He responded, "They are in hot negotiations to bring back King of the Hill."
I tell ya' h'what: it looks like we may see a King of the Hill revival after all.
The reason King of the Hill might get a revival over a decade after it was canceled
While speaking about the potential King of the Hill revival, Forrester prefaced his statement by saying, "I am sure Greg Daniels and Mike Judge will murder me for sharing this." Regardless if that turns out to be true, it does indicate the exciting prospect that the possible revival will have the series' original creators involved in some capacity.
Forrester also pulled back the curtain a bit on the reasoning behind the timing, writing, "The Trump administration made it suddenly very relevant again." That is as true in theory as it has been in practice. As noted by ComicBook.com, debates have raged on social media about how the show's characters, most of whom were proud Bush-era conservatives, would react to the 45th President of the United States. It seems that we may soon be getting a canon answer to that question.
As for the particulars of the possible revival, Forrester indicated that a new installment to the series would see the characters having aged 15 years since the last time we saw them. That would place Bobby Hill in his early 30s and Hank and Peggy around their early 60s. As for other details, such as how the revival will handle the absence of the late Brittany Murphy, who voiced Peggy's niece Luanne, we'll have to wait and see.
Given that this announcement is coming to us from a seemingly spur-of-the-moment Reddit post, the King of the Hill revival is far from officially confirmed just yet. But Forrester did tease fans that what's potentially in store is "sooooo good."