Not too long ago came the news that the early 2000s series Punk’d would be getting the reboot treatment, along with another nostalgic show. Original Punk’d co-creator and host Ashton Kutcher has clarified whether he will be involved in the upcoming reboot. Check out Kutcher’s response below:
He is not involved with it, but he hopes they can get it right. That is the takeaway from Ashton Kutcher’s Twitter response to the new Punk’d. Sounds like he is taking it pretty well. At least, I think so. The original series, which Kutcher co-created with Jason Goldberg, initially ran from 2003 to 2007.
It was revived on MTV for a run in 2012. Punk’d was then developed for a reboot on BET. The latest Punk’d revival will stream on Quibi, which is also the home to an upcoming sci-fi series starring Don Cheadle. Quibi’s Punk’d will unfold over the brief time of 10 minutes. So far, the platform has ordered 20 episodes of the reboot.
At the time of the reboot announcement, a new host doing the pranking was not disclosed. You can clearly rule Ashton Kutcher out as a possibility. For those unaware, Punk’d’s premise centered on the pranking of celebrities. It subjected them to surreal experiences and captured their reactions on-camera. The original series saw Kutcher notoriously prank Justin Timberlake, among many stars.
In that episode of Punk’d, Ashton Kutcher had Justin Timberlake told that his assets were being seized as the result of unpaid income taxes. Timberlake would not be the last celebrity to have his mettle tested.
Will the new Punk’d have similar moments? You will have to wait and see. Ashton Kutcher may not be pranking people on the MTV series anymore, but the That ‘70s Show actor has remained busy. He currently stars on the Netflix series The Ranch. It was recently announced that it would be coming to an end. The news carried a silver lining to it though.
Hopefully Ashton Kutcher will elaborate on what he thinks Punk’d needs to do to get things right. Do they need to go after high-profile celebrities? Does he want them to do some of the same pranks that the original did? I would really like to hear his take on it.
It is tough to imagine something like Punk’d even being doable nowadays. The original series aired in the early 2000s. Things were a lot different then. Social media was still in its infancy, and that alone changes the game dramatically. Celebrities getting Punk’d and it staying a secret seems harder to imagine. At least to me.
There is no word on when the new episodes of Punk’d will begin streaming on Quibi, so stay tuned. Summer has no shortage of television to watch in the meantime.
