Beverly Hills, 90210 star Shannen Doherty has boarded BH90210, Fox’s six-episode event series, as star and executive producer, Deadline reports.
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Doherty joins original co-stars Jason Priestley, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris, Brian Austin Green and Tori Spelling, who will play “heightened versions of themselves” reuniting 19 years after the end of the original teen drama series. The stars attempt to launch a Beverly Hills, 90210 reboot in what is described as a “serialized drama with a dose of irreverence.”
Doherty served as female lead of the original series for its first four seasons, where she portrayed Brenda Walsh, sister to Brandon Walsh (Priestley). She later reprised the role in sequel-slash-spinoff series 90210 that ran for five seasons between 2008 and 2013.
The star, who clashed with cast and producers on the original series, told EW in 2008 she never expected to reprise the role of Brenda Walsh.
“Early on, my publicist got a call asking her ‘Would she do it?’ I was kind of like, Why would I play Brenda Walsh again? There was an ‘I Hate Brenda’ newsletter. Why would I possibly get myself back into that?” Doherty said.
“I think it was too scary for me. I didn’t want to go back to people hating me. It just wasn’t something that I considered for a good chunk of time. At some point it hit me that this is what the fans wanted. They put a roof over my head. They allow me to eat and to feed my dogs. The only reason I survive is because of them. If there’s one way to possibly say thank you, it is to go back and play a character that you never even liked yourself.”
Asked to elaborate, Doherty said at the time there were “parts of Brenda I loved.”
“They just took her in a really odd direction that I didn’t necessarily agree with at the time. I still kind of look back and think, Eh, it’s not what I would have done, but I understand,” she said. “Every show has to have that character full of teenage angst and drama. I think she was driven by insecurity that was at the root of everything.”
As noted by Deadline, late Beverly Hills, 90210 star Luke Perry had not officially signed onto the reboot series before his death early March. The star had commitments to The CW’s Riverdale, which films in Canada.
Before his death, Doherty shared a tribute post honoring Perry after his hospitalization from a massive stroke. Following his March 4 death, Doherty told PEOPLE she was “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the loss.
BH90210 airs this summer on Fox.
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