Glee has always held a special place in Ryan Murphy’s heart, so when he heard the show was having a major resurgence on social media, it planted the seeds for a reboot in his mind.
“That show is interesting because it’s come back around,” he said in a July interview with People. “So many young people now watch it. And I’m like, ‘Maybe we should revisit that show.’ My nostalgia and love for that show is enough that I’m like, ‘Well, maybe people would like to see a new incarnation of that in some capacity.’ So yeah, I love that show, and I loved what it became and what it meant to so many people.”
Months later, Murphy delivered on his comments—on October 21, Disney+ and Hulu granted a series order for Glee, 17 years after the original show’s premiere and 11 years after the final episode. The series also announced the news on its official Instagram, writing, “It’s official. Glee is returning.”
Details about the reboot are currently sparse, but here’s everything we know so far.
Has Murphy started working on the Glee reboot yet?
Yes. In September, Murphy told Entertainment Tonight that there has been progress with writing the show. “We have a script. Brad [Falchuk], Ian [Brennan], and I, who wrote all the first two seasons, have written something,” he said.
Will the original cast members return?
That’s still unclear. The original cast of Glee included Lea Michele, Kevin McHale, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Jane Lynch, Amber Riley, Jenna Ushkowitz, Dianna Agron, Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison, Mark Salling, Jonathan Groff, Chord Overstreet, and Harry Shum Jr. Cory Monteith and Naya Rivera were also part of the original cast, but died in 2013 and 2020, respectively.
While Murphy did not state which stars he has been talking to, he told Entertainment Tonight that he’s “been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members. It’s very sweet, and they all had a lot of questions, but they all were very enthusiastic about the idea.”
What has the cast said about the reboot?
Over the years, several cast members have shared their reactions to a potential Glee reboot, with some stating they would not return to the series if it were made.
Michele, who played the show’s central main character, Rachel Berry, told E! News in September that she’d be open to following Murphy if he expanded the Glee universe. “I love Glee, I will always love Glee,” she said. “I love Ryan Murphy; it holds such a special place in my heart for me, so I will follow Ryan wherever he goes.”
Colfer, who played Kurt Hummel on the show, told Bustle in an interview earlier this month that Glee “was a really tough show to do, and it would be really hard to do it now that Naya [Rivera] is gone.” He added, “I do know that Glee fans would probably come after me with pitchforks and jazz hands if I said no.”
Lynch reflected on her Glee character, Sue Sylvester, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight earlier this month and confirmed that she would join the cast again in a heartbeat. “I would be in like that,” she said.
In May 2025, Riley, who starred as Mercedes Jones, said that she wouldn’t be interested in returning to Glee during her appearance on Monét X Change’s Monét Talks podcast.
“I just feel like what we did was so phenomenal, I don’t want to risk trying to reinvent the wheel,” she said. “Now if they redo it, I think that’s amazing, because there are so many kids now that are just now discovering Glee, and so I think that that’d be really dope. But, you know, we lost cast members. I just feel like the chemistry, that formula, was so specific, and it’s changed now, so I don't know if it would be as effective. I’m always prepared for that question.”
Morris (Brittany S. Pierce) shared in a 2024 interview that she would be down to join the reboot if it were made. “I would,” she said in a video interview. “I think the film industry has come a long way. It was a really tough show to do, and I think being in the space that I’m [in] now, absolutely. I yearn so bad to be in a musical again.”
In 2023, Criss (Blaine Anderson) discussed a potential reboot and revealed that he would be on the fence about it.
“I’m not against it. I know people would like that. I think what made Glee so special is where it sat in its specific time and place,” he explained during his PeopleCon appearance. “I think a lot of cultural moments are defined by the alchemy of where we’re at as a society, and the way it called and responded to each other made it really special.”
Criss continued, “While I, as a fan of Glee, would go, ‘Yeah, I would love to see more,’ I do think there’s something we have to remember about the why, when, and how [the show was] special being very specific to one time. I wouldn’t be against it, but I’m also not screaming to do it. I’m somewhere in between. They have to make it really count.”
At AdoptTogether’s annual Los Angeles Baby Ball in 2022, Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang) told E! News that she would be open to a reboot if the right team worked together to bring it to life.
“If Ryan was doing it and the right people were involved,” she told the outlet at the time. “I would consider it.” She also dispelled rumors of drama between members of the cast, adding, “We’re a family—families don’t always have to get along. When we were working together, it took more energy to fight than it did to just get along. I spent more hours with them than literally, my own family.”
This post will be updated.