Emily Deschanel & David Boreanaz Had One Condition To Work Together On Bones

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

When a series runs for 12 seasons, you'd expect there to be some sort of lingering personal drama keeping the cast and crew from fully embracing the idea of a return. Working alongside the same people for that long just seems as though it would, at some point, have resulted in some conflict that might well have precluded any future reunion. But with "Bones," everybody seems onboard for a revival.

In fact, a "Bones" revival seems more likely than ever right now, with former producers, writers, and actors expressing their desire to return to the show, which ran from 2005 to 2017 on the Fox network. Most importantly, series stars Emily Deschanel, who played forensic scientist Temperance "Bones" Brennan, and David Boreanaz, who played FBI Agent Seeley Booth, have said they'd be open to reprising their roles. Boreanaz, whose CBS/Paramount+ series "SEAL Team" wrapped up in October 2024, has confirmed in interviews that he's open to returning to "Bones," while Deschanel, who currently co-hosts the "Boneheads" rewatch podcast, has said the same.

If you know how well the two stars got along during the show's run, it's not all that surprising that both are so willing to entertain the idea of a "Bones" revival. Boreanaz has spoken about how much he misses working with Deschanel, and the pair actually teamed up to win a battle against Fox that changed "Bones" forever. How did they maintain such a good working relationship for 12 years? Well, it has something to do with an agreement they made before the series even began filming.

"Bones" ended in 2017 with an emotional finale that saw the Jeffersonian team dealing with the destruction of their lab and Temperance Brennan being injured. By the end of the episode, entitled "The End in the End," Brennan has made a recovery, and she and Seeley Booth sit together on a bench reminiscing about their time together. It was an open-ended finale that allowed for the possibility of future "Bones" installments, and now that we're in an age where former network shows are being discovered by new audiences on streaming, we might very well see that happen.

Thankfully, it seems neither Deschanel nor Boreanaz will need much convincing. The pair remain on good terms and much of that surely has to do with their clear-headed approach to their working relationship. The acting duo even set themselves rules before the show's debut. As Deschanel explained to The Hollywood Reporter back in 2019, she and her co-star got along well for the duration of the show, which stemmed from their recognition of the fact that they could easily upset one another. As the actor said:

"We also had an agreement: We spent more time with each other than we did with our own spouses — with anybody else, really — and we fully acknowledged that we would drive each other crazy. We gave each other permission to walk away at different times, or just say, 'You're really bothering me right now,' or, 'You're annoying me, I have to get away from you.' And we rarely used that because we gave each other permission and we talked about it."

It's quite impressive that Boreanaz and Deschanel were smart enough to recognize that they could easily irritate each other before they even started work on the series. But then, this wasn't the former's first time as a series lead.

Prior to "Bones," David Boreanaz had made his name by playing Angel, boyfriend of the titular slayer on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." He then fronted the spin-off "Angel" from 1999 to 2004, so by the time he came to "Bones," Boreanaz was no TV rookie. Meanwhile, though she'd been working for a several years prior to her "Bones" casting, Emily Deschanel had yet to become a series lead when she landed the part of Temperance Brennan, so you've got to wonder whether Boreanaz led the charge when it came to their mutual "you're bothering me" agreement. That would make some sense as, according to Deschanel, her co-star was quite a thoughtful colleague. The actor told THR that Boreanaz "respected [her] from the very beginning," adding:

"We had a great relationship. I had worked for several years but I'd never been a regular on a TV show before, so it was very new to me. He never tried to tell me what to do, never tried to school me in any way or make me feel like I didn't belong or like I was learning and new. We went to an acting coach, so we basically had therapy every week together, which is kind of hilarious, in certain ways, 'cause we would talk about our lives as well in the sessions."

According to Deschanel, Boreanaz had a unique way of following through on their initial agreement. The actor recalled how her co-star would send her a Diet Coke whenever he wanted to let her know she might have overstepped the bounds. "For some reason, it became a joke that if someone was acting badly, you give them a Diet Coke," she said. "I don't drink soda, so if somebody brought me a Diet Coke, I knew it was because he would tell a PA to bring me a Diet Coke as a joke." 

If anything, then, we can be sure that if a "Bones" revival (which is a complicated thing) does become a reality, both stars will not only be able ready for the reunion but go into it knowing how to handle their working relationship should that reunion turn into an ongoing series — something which "Bones" fans are surely hoping for.