“Friday Night Lights” Reboot in the Works 13 Years After the Hit Show's Finale Aired
PEOPLE has learned a reboot is in the early stages
Friday Night Lights is making its return!
PEOPLE has learned that a reboot of the beloved drama is in the early stages with writers Jason Katims, Pete Berg and Brian Grazer. Although it's not fully official just yet, it's slated to have a new cast still set in the world of high school football.
Fans have hoped for a revival of the drama for years since it came to an end in 2011 after five seasons. The original Friday Night Lights followed football players and their coach — starring the likes of Taylor Kitsch, Minka Kelly, Jesse Plemons, Michael B. Jordan, Zach Gilford, Aimee Teegarden, Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler — in a rural town in Texas as they navigated their lives on and off the field.
Related: Glen Powell Reveals He Auditioned to Play 'Friday Night Lights' ' Tim Riggins
The NBC program was inspired by H. G. Bissinger's 1990 novel of the same name, which was also adapted into a 2004 film, starring Billy Bob Thornton, Jay Hernandez, Garrett Hedlund and Tim McGraw, among others.
In 2021, Connie Britton told Entertainment Tonight she didn’t think a reboot would ever happen, saying she didn’t see “us going back into those stories and those particular characters’ lives.”
"We'll do a reunion for sure, like a cast reunion, [but] I don't see them going back into that story, at least with this cast," the White Lotus actress said at the time.
"I heard inklings a few years ago that they were gonna make another Friday Night Lights," she continued. "Now meanwhile, 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."
Britton did, however, admit that it would “be nice to see” where the characters ended up over a decade later.
Related: The Most Nostalgia-Inducing Cast Reunions Through the Years
Minka Kelly also reflected on the success of the show, which won multiple Emmy awards, on its 13th anniversary in 2019, sharing an Instagram post about how the series changed her life.
“13 (wow) years ago tonight @pberg44 changed my life,” Kelly, 39, began. “I was living out of a suitcase in my girlfriends apartment when I got the call that I’d be moving to Austin,” explained Kelly. “I called the surgery center where I worked as a scrub nurse and told them I’d be leaving for some football show in Texas but I’ll see you guys again as soon as I’m back.”
“There was no way a show about football – that was already a movie – about a player who breaks his neck in the pilot episode is going anywhere,” she wrote. “But a job is a job amirite!”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
“But it wasn’t about football,” she wrote. “It was about relationships, family, humanity, love and loss. It was about longing to fit in and wanting to get out. It was about life in a small town and how a community comes together in good times and bad.”
Kelly concluded with the Friday Night Lights slogan: “Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose. Texas Forever. 🤘🏼.”
Friday Night Lights is streaming in full on Netflix.