And back to Tree Hill we go! Over a decade after the popular teen drama series came to an end after nine seasons back in 2012, Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan are reportedly set to star in and executive produce a One Tree Hill sequel series that’s currently in development at Netflix.
According to Deadline, the potential series would be additionally executive produced by writer Becky Hartman Edwards, who previously worked with Netflix on Firefly Lane, and Warner Bros. TV, as well as Jensen Ackles and Danneel Ackles through their production company Chaos Machine. (No mention of creator Mark Schwahn being involved at all.)
Over the years, as reboots and revivals of past television favorites continued to be all the rage, the idea of a continuation series of some kind in the world of One Tree Hill has been floated around. The show has maintained popularity in streaming and spawned the hit rewatch podcast Drama Queens, which originally featured Bush, Burton Morgan, and Bethany Joy Lenz talking about each episode.
What to know about the One Tree Hill revival so far
Beyond Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan, no additional cast members have been reported to be reprising their roles just yet, except for Danneel Ackles, who’s in talks to appear as her iconic character Rachel Gatina. Deadline reports that Chad Michael Murray, who was the series lead as Lucas Scott for six seasons, has “no plans to return for the follow-up.” (Murray and Bush were previously married for one year in 2005, later getting divorced in 2006 during the peak of the show’s success.)
Since Warner Bros. TV and Netflix haven’t made an official announcements as of this writing on Aug. 30, the potential plot of the series isn’t known. Deadline notes that the series would follow similar themes and situations that Brooke and Peyton experienced during their teen years now as mothers to teenage children themselves.
However, it’s unclear if they will be back in Tree Hill and what the status of their marriages could be in the potential sequel series 20 years later. If Murray has no plans to reprise his role as Lucas, could that mean he and Peyton have split or, worse, that’s he’s passed? Are Brooke and Julian still together? There are a lot of questions to be answered for fans of One Tree Hill to better understand the story this new series would be telling.
Now, it’s no secret that there has been a bit of turmoil in the One Tree Hill-verse as of late, as fans have picked up on an alleged rift between the trio of Drama Queens hosts prior to Burton Morgan announcing that she’s stepping back from the podcast and being replaced by season 7-9 series regular Robert Buckley. In the coming weeks and months as the revival project surely picks up steam, there will be plenty of discourse amid the passionate fandom.
With a show as beloved and extensive (almost 200 episodes!) as One Tree Hill, there are likely lots of opinions on Brooke and Peyton making a comeback for a revival. The possibilities for which characters could drop by as guests or return full time are endless. The creative team has a massive bag of tricks to pull from, and fans will be ready for all the nostalgic callbacks and cameos!
No matter what, it’s sure to be a touching and thoughtful exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, modern teenagers, and the emotional realities of the human experience that OTH became known for. There are no two people better suited to reclaim this generation-defining television classic than Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton Morgan, and we can’t what to see what they have cooking.
Stay tuned for more news and updates from Netflix Life!
