Reboot of ‘King of the Hill’ to stream on Hulu
Co-creators and six original voice actors on board for animated-comedy comeback
“We are all so excited to welcome back Hank, Peggy and Bobby, and to see what they have to say about the world we live in and continue the conversations we began years ago.”
Craig Erwich, president of ABC Entertainment, Hulu and Disney Branded Television streaming originals
King of the Hill is officially on its way back to life.
A reboot of Mike Judge’s Emmywinning animated comedy about the Hill family and their neighbors in Arlen, Texas, will stream on Hulu, according to Hollywood news outlets.
Co-creators Judge and Greg Daniels will both be executive producers, with original voice actors Kathy Najimy, Stephen Root, Pamela Adlon, Johnny Hardwick and Lauren Tom on board too, writes The Hollywood Reporter.
“We are all so excited to welcome back Hank, Peggy and Bobby, and to see what they have to say about the world we live in and continue the conversations we began years ago,” Craig Erwich, president of ABC Entertainment, Hulu and Disney Branded Television streaming originals, said in a statement shared with THR. “This show has all of the perfect ingredients to meet this moment in animation at Hulu, and we’re so thankful to be having those conversations alongside this talented group.”
Tuesday’s announcement confirms years of whispers about a possible revival of the show, which ended in 2009. In an interview with THR in January 2022, Judge and Daniels confirmed a reboot was in the works but did not give further details.
No plot lines have been revealed, such as whether Hank is retired from selling propane and still chugging beer in the alley with Boomhauer, Dale and Bill — or what’s become of Peggy Hill, Hank’s wife, or Bobby, Hank’s son.
Starting in 1997, King of the Hill ran for 13 seasons on Fox, drawing nominations for six Emmys. Judge has said elements of the show are derived from North Texas, his former home. Not that we didn’t already know that. In 2015, Judge told KTCK-AM (1310) “The Ticket” that he first lived “in apartments down in the Greenville area,” before settling in Richardson. Scenes from his cult-classic movie Office Space were shot in the area, and his earlier animated sitcom, Beavis and Butthead, has local undertones as well.
Judge and Daniels will produce the new series under their recently founded animation group Bandera Entertainment. “We were very excited to go into different tones and different styles and try to expand the animation art form,” Daniels told THR last year about Bandera. “We’re in a golden age for content, right? That’s animation, too. That was one of the things we were talking about in founding the company: ‘Let’s push animation into all these different genres.’ ”
King of the Hill is not the only Judge show to reemerge in recent years. Comedy Central announced a revival of Beavis and Butt-head in 2020 before the show moved to Paramount+. The series has also spawned two movies.
A reboot of Judge’s former MTV animated series Daria, revolving around the character Jodie, is also being developed as a movie, according to THR, with Tracee Ellis Ross on board.