So What Do We Want From a 'Glee' Reboot?

Did you hear whispers of four-part harmony rustling in the trees? Did you get the urge to do intricate choreography in a fluorescently lit room? Did you suddenly start believing, and did you even manage to hold on to that feeling? Well, that would make sense, because on Wednesday Disney+ and Hulu announced that Glee—Ryan Murphy’s zeitgeisty show-choir series—is officially being rebooted, with Variety reporting that none other than Lea Michele will reprise her star-making role as Rachel “She May Be Difficult, but, Boy, Can She Sing” Berry. Naturally, musical-loving millennials lost their collective minds at the news.

With the news that Girls is returning to HBO for a five-episode revival series, Glee is the second touchstone show from the 2010s to announce a revival in as many weeks. (Millennials: 2. Zoomers: 0.) Whether either of these things is a good idea creatively is sort of beside the point. The wheels are in motion, and they are hurtling our way faster than a slushy headed straight toward Rachel Berry’s headband-adorned face.

As someone who was voted “most likely to appear on Glee” in their 2011 high school yearbook (true story) and who occasionally listens to a “Glee Cast Version” of a song privately on Spotify (sorry, sometimes they’re better than the originals!), I do feel I have earned the right to make a few demands of what we want to see—and don’t want to see—from a Glee reboot series.

Yes, the series ended with a flash-forward to 2020 (spoilers, I guess?). Rachel Berry is a Tony winner and surrogate for Kurt and Blaine’s baby, and Sue Sylvester is vice president of the United States. (Actually, it’s a bit scary how much Sue Sylvester and JD Vance have in common—two Republican blowhards from the Midwest who ascend to our nation’s second-highest office). According to Will & Grace reboot rules, none of that is canon. So we can disregard all of the happy endings from the series finale and throw the Gleeks back into the mess where they belong…

Bring Them Back to Ohio

Glee is about so many things: Finding your tribe. Hitting a flawless high F while nailing a double pirouette in a peplum top. Faking a pregnancy (we still talk about you, Terri Schuester). It’s also about being a kid with big dreams stuck in a small town. So for that reason we’ve gotta bring the action back to where it all began: William McKinley High School.

I am aware that Glee trades the Buckeye State for the Big Apple in season four, choosing to follow Rachel and company as they try to make it in New York City. It made sense at the time. They had to graduate eventually. But everyone knows it led to diminishing returns. Splitting time between the hustle and bustle of NYC and the glee club back at William McKinley just didn’t quite work. (Although the Sarah Jessica Parker–led mash-up “Let’s Have a Kiki / It’s Turkey Lurkey Time” remains one of the all-time craziest “they did what???” moments in the series.) Also, the Girls revival will have plenty of New York content for millennials to be nostalgic for.

Let’s find a natural way to get them back to where it all began. Maybe some of them never left: Maybe Brittany, the secret math genius she was, is teaching at a local university. And perhaps Blaine and Kurt have settled in a nearby Midwest town and are micro-influencers for their growing antique collection.

Rachel Berry is the trickiest to crack, and as such will be the engine of the show. I think it’s fine to keep her as a Tony-winning diva, who gets run out of New York for bad behavior—maybe she’s caught poisoning her competition before a final callback for a site-specific production of Rent in the East Village—and winds up back at home, Tony in hand, tail between her legs and demanding to be the coach of New Directions. Imagine what a nightmare she’d be as a show-choir director.

That being said…

We Don’t Need Everyone to Come Back

Glee had so many cast members and guest stars over the course of its six-season run that it would be impossible to try to get them all back for the revival. Plus, sadly, they aren’t all still with us to return. There are some truly devastating losses from the original Glee cast (RIP Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera), and some deeply disturbing ones as well (the less said about Mark Salling the better). Figuring out who should come back is easier said than done.

With Lea Michele confirmed and Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris) and Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet) teasing on social media that they’re involved, it’s clear they are going to be reaching out to some stars of the original series. Let’s throw in the other day-ones with her: Artie. Jenna. Kurt. Mercedes. Quinn. And Blaine (he basically counts at this point). As for teachers, we gotta have Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester, because what is Glee if Jane Lynch isn’t delivering some of the nastiest reads you’ve ever heard? Mr. Schuester is on the fence…would he really still be principal of William McKinley all these years later? (I fear in our current economy the answer is yes.) After much deliberation, Matthew Morrison’s Mr. Schue can return as well on the condition that in his spare time he keeps making Cameos that ultimately become viral TikToks.

Beyond that, I think it’s okay to be picky and choosy about who returns for a prominent role. The Glee reboot should pepper the series with some fun cameos from beloved characters, many of whom got cast in the later shakier seasons, as well as some of the most fun guest stars. Thank God Gwyneth Paltrow started acting again so she can reprise her Emmy-winning role as Holly Holiday, and NeNe Leakes is free to play bronze-medal-winning synchronized-swimming coach Roz Washington.

We also need to leave room for actors who obviously would exist and thrive in the Glee Cinematic Universe (the GCU, if you will), but never got the chance to. Ryan Murphy once teased he was writing a Glee reboot for Beanie Feldstein and Ben Platt. Congrats, you’re both teachers at McKinley High. Rachel Zegler, you’re on tap to be the second coming of Rachel Berry, as frighteningly talented and ambitious as your foremother (I mean, it’s literally in her name).