The Wonder Years reboot from Lee Daniels announces its cast
ABC has ordered a one season reboot of the late 80s/early 90s sitcom, The Wonder Years. It will be co-produced and directed by Lee Daniels. Elijah “EJ” Williams will play the lead, Dean Williams, based on the original character Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage). Dulé Hill will play the father, Bill. Milan Ray will also star as Dean’s love interest. The reboot has a twist as it will follow the Williams, a Black family living in segregated Montgomery, Alabama in the 1960s. Of course this is during the height of the civil rights movement which was centered in Montgomery through the activism of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other key Black figures in history. Fred Savage will direct the first episode and also co-produce the show. Below are a few more details from ET:
The Wonder Years is getting the reboot treatment at ABC, and filmmaker Lee Daniels has shared the first look at the new cast. The upcoming series, which received a pilot order from the network, will star Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean Williams, taking over for Fred Savage, who played the central character, Kevin Arnold, in the original run.
Rounding out the rest of the Williams family is Dulé Hill as Bill, the patriarch who is a music professor by day and a funk musician by night, Saycon Sengbloh as his perceptive and good-humored wife, Lillian, with Laura Kariuki as Kim, Dean’s confident and popular teenage sister.
The new version written by comedy and TV veteran Saladin K. Patterson will focus on this middle-class family living in Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1960s as Dean is trying to figure out his place at home and the world at large. Described by ABC as “a little insecure, a tad awkward and a bit self-conscious, he is determined to make his mark on the world around him.”
Additionally, Don Cheadle will serve as the narrator, aka “Adult Dean,” who reflects back on his younger years as he embarks on the next stage of his life as a new grandfather, while Julian Lerner and Amari O’Neil have been added as Dean’s childhood friends.
The original series, starring Savage, McKellar, Josh Saviano, Jason Hervey, Dan Lauria, Alley Mills and Olivia d’Abo, aired on ABC from 1988 to 1993. Savage is set to direct the pilot and executive produce the new project, along with Daniels, Patterson and Marc Velez, with original series co-creator Neal Marlens as a consultant.
I’m tired of all the reboots, however as a fan of the original Wonder Years I am actually looking forward to this. I love that the original cast of the Wonder Years is involved. It’s exciting that Fred Savage will be an executive producer. It was also super sweet that Danica McKellar reached out to Milan Ray.
I’m interested in seeing a suburban Black family during the civil rights movement in Montgomery as the story is unfortunately still relevant today. I am ambivalent about Daniels’s involvement. He sometimes has a ham-fisted approach and I think this needs a more nuanced take. Don Cheadle could add comedic levity as the narrator though. I didn’t know who Saladin K Patterson was before reading this article (he was a writer on Psych and Two and a Half Men) but I’m interested to see how he handles a dramedy.
I hope the writers don’t try to create a Black version of a cookie cutter suburban white family. Hopefully they’ll address those issues head-on while also showing the audience things haven’t changed much for Black people. At the same time, I hope that the series doesn’t dissolve into trauma porn but mainly focuses on the joy of a Black family living in the 60s. I am tired of seeing the suffering and pain of Black people as the main narrative on screen.
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