'The Wonder Years' Reboot Will Focus on a Black Family

Call us nostalgic but we love a good TV reboot—when it has something new to say. The latest show to hop on the revival bandwagon is The Wonder Years, but this time, the coming-of-age hit is being reimagined from a whole new perspective. ABC announced Wednesday that the revival of the beloved half-hour comedy will take place during the same 1960s time period as the original, but this time, it will center on a Black, middle-class family.

Talks about a possible reboot have been in the works for years, but the updated show premise feels especially relevant during the current Black Lives Matter movement and shows a necessary push for more diverse perspectives and storytelling on TV. The show will be executive produced by Empire co-creator Lee Daniels, while Saladin K. Patterson (The Big Bang Theory) is the showrunner. The original show's star, Fred Savage, is reportedly on board, too, as director and executive producer.

The official description for the revival reads: "How a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama, in the turbulent late 1960s, the same era as the original series, made sure it was The Wonder Years for them too."

Savage starred as the young Kevin Arnold, and the show centered on him growing up in a suburban middle-class family during the late 1960s and early ‘70s. The original Wonder Years had 115 episodes and ran from 1988 to 1993, and it garnered several Emmy wins. The show’s opening theme song “I Get By With a Little Help from My Friends” was a family room anthem. (We have so many questions about the revival's theme song, which are probably premature.)

According to Forbes, the The Wonder Years reboot—if it moves forward after the produced pilot—is expected to debut in 2021. We’re looking forward to watching the classic show get a fresh update.