‘Friday Night Lights’ reboot series heads to Peacock

It’s back to the gridiron for Friday Night Lights.

Connie Britton as Tami Taylor, Kyle Chandler as Coach Eric Taylor in ‘Friday Night Lights’.

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

The beloved sports drama series, which was adapted from the 2004 film of the same name, and that film itself an adaptation of a 1990 H.G. Bissinger novel, is finally getting a reboot. The new adaptation is officially in the works from Universal Television, the original series’ studio, and will stream on Peacock.

Most of the original crew are back on board as well, including showrunner and executive producer Jason Katims, director and EP Peter Berg, who developed and directed the film, and Brian Grazer, another OG series and film EP. The logline for Friday Night Lights 2.0 reads: “Following a devastating hurricane, a rag tag high school football team and their damaged, interim coach make an unlikely bid for a Texas High School State Championship becoming a beacon of light for their town.”

Now entering its fifth iteration, (NBC originally tried to serialize the book in 1993 with star Ben Affleck, but Against the Grain only lasted eight episodes), Friday Night Lights broadly follows the travails of a West Texas high school football team and the coaches, teachers, families, and students connected to them.

The successful NBC series ran from 2006-2011, with the 2007-2008 writer’s strike forcing a shortened second season and an unusual arrangement in which DirecTV’s 101 Network agreed to co-produce and premiere three more seasons, with NBC re-broadcasting the episodes months later.

The series was popular with viewers, critically acclaimed, gave major boosts to the careers of its leads, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton, and helped launch the careers of series regulars like Aimeé Teegarden, Jesse Plemmons, and Michael B. Jordan.

Fan demand for more Friday Night Lights has remained raucous for over a decade. When the show was canceled after season 5, petitions went up to at least give the series the sixth seasons many fans believe it deserved. Berg himself stated in 2011 that a film was coming with Chandler and Britton back on board, but nothing materialized until today’s announcement.

Friday Night Lights was most certainly a character-driven series, and boasts one of the most impressive ensembles of its era on television. But as yet there’s been no indication as to who, if any of the core cast members will return.

Britton is an obvious choice, being the actress who bridged the 2004 film and 2006 series. Chandler’s Coach Taylor is also one of the most beloved TV characters in recent memory, and won one of the series’ two Emmy Awards (the other going to Katims, for writing). Then there’s the rest of the illustrious cast, from Minka Kelly and Taylor Kitsch to Alicia Witt and Caleb Landry Jones.

Fans will just have to wait for those floodlights to flick on one more time to see what’s become of the home team.