Glee officially resurrected on Disney+, Lea Michele returns

Ryan Murphy’s musical series is getting a new season! But which former members of New Directions will return to the choir?

McKinley High School reopens its doors!

Eleven years after the end of Glee, the singing club will welcome new students.

Disney+ and Hulu have officially given the green light to the reboot of the musical series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. And the first casting news already makes you want to bring out the New Directions blazers.

According to Variety, Lea Michele will reprise the role of Rachel Berry, the one who revealed her to the general public. Several sources cited by the American media confirm his return. “She is,” assures one of them, while another rejoices: “It’s still quite early, but it feels good and we are happy to get the group back together.”

Two other former cast members also posted messages on social media that appeared to announce their return: Heather Morris, aka Brittany Pierce, and Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans. For now, however, Disney has not revealed any official list of actors.

Will Matthew Morrison be back as Professor Will Schuester? Will Rachel Berry return to the halls of McKinley? Will the series follow a new generation of high school students, supervised by some historical figures of the club? Plot details remain under wraps.

The project has been in preparation for several months. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Ryan Murphy revealed that he wrote the script for the reboot with his collaborators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. He had also made contact with around ten former members of the cast.

Broadcast on Fox between 2009 and 2015, Glee marked an entire generation with its covers of hits, from “Don’t Stop Believin'” to “Teenage Dream”, including “River Deep, Mountain High” and “Smooth Criminal”. But the series was not limited to its musical numbers: it also addressed, sometimes in a frontal and controversial manner, sexuality, racism, disability and mental health. More than a decade after his last episode, his music continues to be listened to by millions of people every month on Spotify.

The return of Glee will not be able to forget the tragedies that struck its cast. Naya Rivera, who played Santana Lopez, died in July 2020, at age 33, after drowning in a lake in California when she had just saved her young son, who had fallen into the water. She was the third tragic death among the main actors of the series. Cory Monteith, who played Finn Hudson, died of an overdose in 2013, while Glee was still on the air. Mark Salling, who played Noah “Puck” Puckerman, died in 2018 after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

So many injuries that are part of the history of the series and the memory of its fans. The reboot will therefore have to find its place between nostalgia, homage and new adventure.

The new series will be produced by 20th Television and broadcast on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in France. No release date has been announced yet.