Reboots are not over yet, as the popular football teen drama Friday Night Lights, which originally premiered in 2006, has been added to the list. Originally airing for five seasons, Friday Night Lights followed Coach Eric Taylor and the ups and downs of the football-obsessed small town of Dillon, Texas, where the Dillon Panthers were the most important thing to the residents.
The original series found itself grounded in the high school football season, following select significant members of the team through their time at school until the final two seasons replaced most of the original main cast with newfound talent to recognize the narrative of Coach Eric Taylor striving to re-build the football team at East Dillon High School.
Although riddled with continuity errors, Friday Night Lights still established a cult following, as the series spent time seeking to blend the politics of football and the boosters with storylines that followed the characters home, such as Matt Saracen, the Dillon High School quarterback desiring to live up to his new position and pressure while simultaneously stepping up to be an adult and take care of his grandmother.
The executive producers of the original series, Jason Katims and Brian Gazer, are both attached to be involved with the rebooted project. However, given the reboot is also expected to follow new characters, it is unlikely going to be a reboot that brings back any of the original characters in a leading role or series regular capacity.
So, what does an updated portrayal of Friday Night Lights mean? Well, there is always the opportunity to touch on topics and storylines that the series never portrayed in the original version. The rebooted portrayal of Friday Night Lights has the ability to dive deeper into storylines that the initial rendition had only used as surface storylines rather than allowing more time to be given to such plotlines.
Friday Night Lights could be a very exciting portrayal of a reboot that recognizes the best of its original premise while adding storylines that could help expand the Friday Night Lights universe.