Phil Lord & Chris Miller's 'Clone High' Reboot Just Took A Big Step Toward A Glorious Comeback
Almost exactly one year ago, we got the exciting news that The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller would be reaching back to the early 2000s for a reboot of their animated series Clone High. Today, the revival of the series is one big step closer to an official comeback.
Originally airing on Canada's Teletoon and imported to MTV, Clone High followed the clones of historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Joan of Arc, Gandhi, Cleopatra and more as they dealt with all the teen angst, romance, and drama of high school. Now the series is being revived and re-imagined by Lord & Miller, and they just had a table read for the first episode, which has an all too appropriate title for bringing the Clone High reboot to life.
Here's what Chris Miller posted to Twitter towards the end of the work day yesterday:
About to do a table read. pic.twitter.com/cFD88xT4ah
— Christopher Miller (@chrizmillr) June 23, 2021
Even though Clone High is a reboot, it looks like they're keeping the original first season canon since the first episode of the new series is labeled as "Episode 201." The episode in question is titled "Let's Try This Again," which makes us think that Lord & Miller will make some kind of meta acknowledgement about the show's initial run. If only we could have been at the table read to see what they have in store for us...
Joining Lord & Miller in writing the script is Erica Rivinoja, who is fresh off an Oscar nomination for her contributions to the script for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. She previously worked with Lord & Miller as co-executive producer on their series Last Man on Earth, so we know they work well together. Rivinoja was also a consulting producer and supervising producer on the underrated NBC comedy series Up All Night with Will Arnett and Christina Applegate.
Though Clone High will clearly be treading the same territory as the single season of 13 episodes that came before it, we're betting there will at least one big change on the show, and it might even be referenced in a meta fashion when the reboot comes along.
Avoiding Controversy?
Though the Clone High reboot will follow in the familiar footsteps of the original show by focusing on Abraham Lincoln, Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, John F. Kennedy, and more as they face the trials and tribulations of normal teenage life, there's one key figure who wasn't mentioned when the show was announced to return. Gandhi was not listed among the historical figures who were originally part of the show's cast of characters.
In the original series, there was quite the controversy surrounding Gandhi's inclusion in the cast of the series. After over 100 people engaged in a hunger strike in India to protest the series, MTV pulled Clone High from the air, which had been receiving low ratings at the time anyway. So we're thinking that Gandhi won't be making a comeback with the show. Even if the character is somehow included in the line-up, it probably won't be with comedian Michael McDonald reprising the role, since that would likely spark a whole new controversy.
We're still not sure when we'll see Clone High return, or where it will be debuting, but we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, you can get excited about another twist on history with Lord & Miller's animated feature America: The Motion Picture, coming to Netflix very soon.