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She would be the first member of the original show's cast to sign on for the new series.
The revival of Glee is zeroing in on its first returning castmember.
Lea Michele is in talks to reprise her role as Rachel Berry in the series, which Disney+ and Hulu announced Wednesday. Where the character will be in the present remains to be seen: There are next to no details about the show other than it has a series order and that 20th Television is producing.
Even the names of Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan weren’t mentioned in Disney’s press release early Wednesday, though sources say that’s likely just a matter of all i’s being dotted.
Reps for Disney and Murphy declined to comment, and messages to Michele’s reps weren’t returned by publication time. Variety first reported Michele’s potential casting.
Michele starred in all six seasons of Glee’s original run from 2009-15 as Rachel, the very talented and occasionally off-putting star vocalist of the McKinley High School show choir, New Directions. Rachel dreamed of Broadway stardom, which she eventually achieved; the 2015 series finale shows her winning a Tony Award.
Michele had appeared in several Broadway productions, notably starring in Spring Awakening before joining Glee. She most recently starred in a revival of Chess on Broadway and had a run in Funny Girl in 2022-23.
Murphy told The Hollywood Reporter in August that he was “considering” returning to Glee: “For many, many people now in their 20s, they grew up on that show and it meant something to them,” he said. “The music meant something. So, let’s kick it around and see what we get.” In September, he said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that he, Falchuk and Brennan had finished a script for a new version of the series.
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