King of the Hill Reboot Teases Luanne Tribute for New Hulu Season

King of the Hill is coming back for a new season of its revival series with Hulu later this Summer, and it’s teasing that fans will finally find out what happened to Luanne with its new episodes. King of the Hill returned to Hulu with a new season of the animated series 15 years after the original ended its run, and revealed what Hank Hill and the rest of Arlen had been doing in the near decade since the events of the final season. But there was one glaring absence throughout it all that fans want to see addressed.

Luanne, Lucky, and their child were major characters seen in the original King of the Hill series, but were completely absent in the first season of the Hulu revival. With King of the Hill Season 15 confirmed to be coming to the streaming service on July 20th, the first look at the upcoming episodes are sneakily teasing a new tribute to Luanne by highlighting one of her biggest episodes of the original run. At the very least, we’re going to see Big Tex make an appearance in the new episodes.

King of the Hill Season 15 Teases Luanne Tribute

Hidden in the trees with this first poster for King of the Hill Season 15 is Big Tex, which was first seen in the Season 8 episode, “Girl, You’ll Be a Giant Soon.” This one was notable because it’s an episode where Luanne voice star Brittany Murphy won an Annie Award for, but it’s also one where Hank and Luanne connect in a fun way. It’s far from the first or most notable of these kinds of episodes where Hank and Luanne bond, but it would be an interesting route for a Luanne tribute to take by reminding Hank about this moment from the past.

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Big Tex is particularly an icon because the episode saw Luanne climbing into the giant mascot’s mouth, so seeing it included here makes that connection stand out more. That’s especially the case because showrunner Saladin K. Patterson had been teasing a tribute to Luanne since before the King of the Hill revival premiered last year, “We talked about the best way to honor [Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty], the show and the fans as well. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but we found opportunities to let them be referenced, in a very respectful way that people are going to appreciate.” But as fans discovered in that first season, no tribute actually happened.

What Will Happen to Luanne in King of the Hill Revival?

The biggest question surrounding Luanne’s absence from the King of the Hill revival thus far is how the show is going to handle her character moving forward. We’ve seen other characters recast following their original actor’s passing, but Patterson also previously teased Luanne and Lucky would be retired instead, “The analogy I use as a sports fan is, sometimes the best way to honor someone’s work is to hang their jersey up in the rafters as a show of respect and what they meant to the organization,” Patterson stated ahead of the revival’s initial premiere.

“It didn’t seem right to recast certain characters,” the showrunner continued. “I don’t want to spoil anything, but (we) figured out other ways in the storytelling to honor those characters.” This return from Big Tex would be a return to that festival setting which also has been at the center of another Luanne story too, Season 5’s “The Perils of Polling,” where she decides to be a communist. It’s so tied to Luanne’s history at this point that it would be strange for Hank or Peggy (maybe with Luanne’s daughter in tow) to visit the location without bringing her up at least once.

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