King of the Hill is in the works on coming back with a brand new revival series, and quite a lot has been revealed ahead of its release. It was first announced back in 2022 that series creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels were in the works on bringing back King of the Hill, and in 2023 it was confirmed to be in production for a release with Hulu. Following the streaming service reviving animated classics such as The Animaniacs and Futurama, King of the Hill is the next major animated series that’s coming back with a new crop of episodes for its new era.
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King of the Hill is currently working on a new series that will be bringing back as much of the original voice cast as possible, but is going to be making some dramatic changes from what was seen in the original. There will be new characters, characters who will likely either be recast or removed, and other changes teased through interviews with the staff over the last couple of years of development. As we’re closer than ever to seeing the new King of the Hill in action, it’s time to collect everything that’s been revealed about the new series thus far.
King of the Hill’s Revival Is Bringing Back the Original Cast
Confirmed with the initial announcement of the revival series, the new King of the Hill series will bring back original series creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. Saladin Patterson will be serving as the showrunner, and Kathy Najimy, Stephen Root, Pamela Adlon, and Lauren Tom have been confirmed to return. It’s yet to be revealed what other characters each of these actors might be returning to, but the core cast is set. Johnny Hardwick, who voiced Dale Gribble in the original series, unfortunately passed away mid-production.
It was previously reported by TVLine that Hardwick was able to record at least “a couple” of the planned episodes before his passing, but it has yet to be confirmed as of the time of this publication. As a result of this shift, it has also yet to be revealed how King of the Hill will be moving forward in this situation as Dale plays a significant role in the original series. They might retire the character, or more likely recast given that the character itself is such a big part of the core fiber of King of the Hill’s original run. It’s the same case for two other significant members of the core cast as well.
Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty, who performed for Luanne and Lucky respectively, have since passed away in the years since the original King of the Hill’s airing. These two characters were also built into the core dynamic of the original series, and their absence will likely be felt. It’s yet to be revealed if either of their characters are going to be recast, but they will likely be some of the characters ripe for shuffling around due to the big time skip coming in the new series.
King of the Hill’s Revival Takes Place Nearly a Decade Later
In an interview with Movieweb, Pamela Adlon had revealed Bobby Hill in the revival is now 21 years old and working as a chef in Dallas. This was further confirmed with the first look at the design for the now-adult Bobby Hill spotted online, and thus confirms that it’s been nearly a decade since the events of the original series. Bobby was still 12 when that first run came to an end, and if he’s now an adult and moving on with his career, every other character has also been aged up that time to help compensate.
This will be the best way the new King of the Hill series can address some of the character involvement issues. It’s a good way to write out Luanne and Lucky, and perhaps introduce several new characters to help fill in the gaps. Bobby working outside of the home also opens it up to new people in his environment as well, and the slate is opened with this time jump. It’s going to lead to a big shuffle of the main characters at the center of the series, and open it up to a new generation of stories outside of the Arlen setting.
As for Bobby’s future career, this is the first bit of concrete information as to how the characters are going to be updated. Bobby is working as a robata chef in a restaurant, and thus has pursued cooking (over comedy) as his full career. This stems from the final episode of the series that saw Bobby truly falling in love with barbecue, but his robata cooking style will likely lead to a rift with Hank himself as it’s a style that primarily uses charcoal. Which, of course, is something Hank really hates with a passion.
When Does King of the Hill Revival Premiere?
As for when King of the Hill will be premiering its new episodes on Hulu, it should be fairly soon. Stephen Root (who voices Bill Dauterive and others in the series) teased that table readings were beginning for the series last April, and Adlon (in that same interview where she mentioned Bobby’s age) had noted that the team was already in the works on the second season of episodes. Production for the new revival has been fully underway ever since, so it’s likely that we’re getting a King of the Hill return some time in 2025.
King of the Hill series co-creator Greg Daniels noted that the team had been working on the new series ahead WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes last year, and they “had table-read two episodes, and it was a lot of fun and everybody was very excited, and then we all went on strike.” Explaining last Fall that following the strike the team was then “rewriting the third episode or the fourth episode and getting notes on the first episode. Yeah, it’s chugging along” at the time when asked about the production’s progress.
Daniels had estimated that the new series would be released in “early 2025,” and a Spring 2025 release window would make a lot of sense. It’s yet to be revealed when Futurama Season 13 premieres, and if production continues at its current pace, Hulu could be treating fans to King of the Hill in the Spring and Futurama in the Summer. Or maybe even a reverse with Futurama, then King of the Hill shortly after. Either way, it’s likely not going to be too much longer before we get to see how King of the Hill comes back.
