A decade removed from its series finale, One Tree Hill star Bethany Joy Lenz is endorsing the show's potential reboot. From 2003 to 2012, One Tree Hill aired for nine seasons with nearly 200 episodes. Along with Lenz in a lead role, the series also starred Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Hilarie Burton, Paul Johansson, and Sophia Bush.
As of now, there's no new incarnation of the series in development. Given the success of One Tree Hill when the acclaimed series was on the air, however, the possibility of a reboot is always there. In years past, the cast has been asked about the possibility, but in our new exclusive interview with Lenz, the actress says that it never "felt right." Perhaps the lack of interest from the cast would have kept One Tree Hill in the past.
Things are now different. Lenz says the recent podcast Drama Queens, which breaks down episodes of the series, has gotten them all invested into One Tree Hill and the characters they used to play. It even has them brainstorming ideas on what the characters of the show are up to these days, as Lenz teases the possibility of revisiting these characters with the new story they want to tell.
"Absolutely [I would do a reboot]. People have been asking [us] that for years, and I don't know if that had ever felt right. But for the first time since we started Drama Queens, since we really have gone back to reclaim the bad experiences and remind ourselves of why we loved all the good experiences [...] The podcast has done so much healing work for us that, now more than ever, we have started to envision what [a reboot] might look like for all of these characters. Because it's our story to tell."
One Tree Hill's Other Cast Members Have Addressed a Possible Reboot
One Tree Hill was created by Mark Schwahn. The series, originally premiering on The WB in 2003 (which later became The CW in 2006), the coming-of-age drama wrapped up its run in 2012 after nine seasons. The show is set in the ficiotnal town of Tree Hill in North Carolina, starting by following two brothers competing for positions on their school's basketball team, along with the ensuing drama from their respective romantic lives.
“I can’t imagine that it won’t [be rebooted], at some point,” Chad Michael Murray told E! News in December. “We get asked all the time. I know I do. And I know Hilarie [Burton] does, and I see everybody at least once or twice a year. I got to imagine at some point, there would be some version of it.”
Offering a pitch, the actor added, "I have an idea that’s been bouncing around in my head to do a new generation of this show, dealing with today’s issue There’s just so many things now that are so very different than it was back in the early aughts. So, you can do issues that are relating to children and kids that [they] are dealing in high school today.”
One Tree Hill can be found streaming on HBO Max.