Knight Rider: David Hasselhoff and James Gunn Have “Discussed” Modern Version

As if James Gunn doesn’t have enough going on to keep him busy between premiering his new HBO Max original series Peacemaker and filming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, he’s apparently noodled with the idea of a modern version of the classic ’80s series Knight Rider. Taking part in one of his regular Twitter Q&As, Gunn was asked by a fan which “super machine TV series from the 80s” he’d want to reboot, allowing him to pick from Airwolf, Knight Rider, and Street Hawk. To the surprise of many, Gunn revealed that he and David Hasselhoff have already “discussed” a new version of his classic show.

 “My friend @DavidHasselhoff and I have discussed doing a modern continuation of Knight Rider many times,” Gunn tweeted. “The primary hurdle hasbeen there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the cool things I want to do!” To be clear, Gunn’s tweet seems to allude more to two friends simply talking “what if” about a new Knight Rider and nothing that found its way into a meeting with people that could make such a project happen, so don’t go thinking this is a done deal. To cement that these talks were true, and also that there’s not enough time in their schedules to allow for it, Hasselhoff himself replied to Gunn, adding: “Cést la vie my friend!”

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For those unaware, Knight Rider saw Hasselhoff playing crimefighter Michael Knight who worked in tandem with an artificially intelligent car named K.I.T.T. Talk of a reboot has popped up every few years, with a reboot movie announced last year but no other news has been revealed on it since then. As of a month ago however all 86 episodes of the series and the 1991 TV movie Knight Rider 2000 are now streaming on Netflix.

Gunn and Hasselhoff previously collaborated on 2017’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 which not only features a cameo by Hasselhoff but also the song “Guardians’ Inferno” which was written by Gunn and partially performed by Hasselhoff (who also appeared in the video).

A previous interview from 2017 with Hasselhoff saw the actor confirm the discussions between he and Gunn to Movieweb. In the interview, Hasselhoff said they’d had talks with Netflix about a “dark” Knight Rider, but since there’s been no movement on it since then and Gunn has said it’s not happening then we can only dream.