King of the Hill Raises Big Timeline Questions With One Hill Family Return

Warning! Major spoilers for King of the Hill Season 14 to follow! King of the Hill has actually thrown its whole Hulu revival timeline into chaos with one Hill family member return in one of the new episodes. King of the Hill Season 14 is set years after the events of the original series, and brings back the original characters at a much later stage in each of their respective lives. Though some characters have had their new ages outright revealed in the new episodes, there are even more that are in question thanks to their returns. This is especially the case for Hank’s younger half-brother, G.H. otherwise known as Good Hank.

King of the Hill revealed that Bobby is now a 21 year old chef working in Dallas, and that means it’s been about 8 years since the events of the original as he was 13 by the end of its run. But with Good Hank’s return in the new revival, it’s immediately apparent that even more years have passed than that as he’s depicted as a full teenager upon his return as he and his brother Hank enter a whole new stage of their relationship going forward. Which means that the timeline also isn’t as concrete as previously expected.

Good Hank Returns as a Teenager

King of the Hill Season 14 Episode 9, “No Hank Left Behind” reunites the Hill brothers (including Junichiro from Japan) after it’s revealed that a settlement has been made for the shin jelly that Cotton Hill used back when he was alive. Each of them gets money as a result, and Didi uses the opportunity to ask Hank to be in G.H.’s life more because she’s worried about the way he grows up. But in his reappearance, it’s immediately clear that he’s a teenager who is at least 13-16 years old. But as fans know about the original, he was just a baby who wasn’t more than a year or two old.

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This establishes more of a floating timeline for King of the Hill than expected. Because while the animated series was never really tied down to any real “canon,” it had always been serialized in how the characters had changed. It was just never quite clear how much time had passed as it really only seemed like a concrete year or so given how Bobby and the rest of the young characters aged. Hank himself was even confirmed to now be in his mid to late 50s as of the start of the revival by the creative team.

What Does This Mean for New King of the Hill?

This floating timeline doesn’t really ruin too much of King of the Hill’s revival when it comes to reuniting with each of the characters thus far, but it does kind of shift how long Hank and Peggy had been away from the United States and living in Saudi Arabia. The start of the new series sees them returning home for the first time, and it’s implied that they at least missed the pandemic years within that span of time.

But with Bobby having such a set age, it means he should likely be much older than seen in the new episodes than seen now if Good Hank is a teenager. This has likely just been done to open up fun more stories for Hank and his younger brother, otherwise G.H. would still be a kid. At least now he can relate to him in some way and actually start a relationship of some kind now that he’s retired. It’s just going to take some getting used to.