Why One Fan-Favorite Just Said No to the ‘Friday Night Lights’ Reboot

Taylor Kitsch built his career and cultural impact portraying Tim Riggins. Now, he’s turning down the Friday Night Lights reboot. 

"I was asked to do it," Kitsch, 44, told The Wrap on Aug. 4. "I'm not going back." 

Kitsch portrayed fullback Tim Riggins in five seasons of the original Friday Night Lights, which ran from 2006 to 2011. Rugged, flawed, and endlessly quotable, Riggins became the show’s soul and a blueprint for sensitive masculinity on TV. 

Despite the fandom’s appetite for a full-blown reunion, Kitsch hasn’t even spoken with his old co-star Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor) about the reboot.

In a recent interview with Esquire, showrunner Peter Berg confirmed the reboot is not meant to live in the past. "If Friday Night Lights works, it’ll be because it works as a reinvention," he said. 

Berg is open to cameos, but his focus is on today’s Texas, today’s teams, and today’s headlines. Football, Berg noted, "has only grown in its relevance" since Buzz Bissinger’s original book hit shelves in 1990.

Still, all hope isn't lost for fans who want to see Kitsch in the planned Friday Night Lights reboot. Kitsch and Michael B. Jordan (who played Vince Howard in the final seasons) have both floated cameo-level involvement. "I’ll do a cameo," Kitsch told Access at the Terminal List: Dark Wolf premiere on Aug. 4. "I would do one. It’s got to be out of control, though."

For now, there’s no word on whether Minka Kelly, 45, Jesse Plemons, 37, or Adrianne Palicki, 42, will return. But with Berg at the helm and the story moving in a fresh direction, the new Friday Night Lights may not need them.