When news broke the other day Friday Night Lights would be making a comeback and following a new team in Texas dealing with the after effects of a hurricane, my brain scrambled in all directions. Did this mean a totally new remake or a spinoff of sorts? Would the OG cast be involved in any capacity? Would it give the same vibe and feel as the original series, which ran on NBC and then DirecTV for its final seasons? Taylor Kitsch has thankfully answered some of these questions for me, but I’d like to push back a little bit on his own ideas about what's coming. Hear me out.
Kitsch recently spoke to Sirius XM about the Friday Night Lights reimagining and as it turns out, the show has reached out to see if he would like to be involved. Amidst this, there's both good and bad news, depending on your personal bandwidth when it comes to Tim Riggins as a character.
The actor said to the radio outlet he’s “been asked,” also telling the outlet he’d “maybe do something for an episode.” He then ended the comment with “we’ll leave it at that” before actually giving us a few more tidbits about how he feels about the new series, which is bringing back some OG creators like Peter Berg.
How Taylor Kitsch Thinks He Should Come Back To FNL (And What I Think Should Really Happen)
While I’m certainly happy about the thought of getting an update on a character I adored watching and was always rooting for during the original show’s run, it sounds like we wouldn’t be getting Tim Riggins in a major capacity given the new storyline (the bad news). However, per Kitsch, there’s an easy way to bring him on board and have him pop in without having him become a regular on the show:
I don’t want to go and do the whole thing. I’d go and have fun, but I don’t want to lead an FNL reboot or anything. I love the continuous challenging roles and to keep pushing. I would do both [Riggins or a new role]. I could create something that could hopefully be pretty fun. But I think if you saw me as someone else, you’d be like, ‘That’s Riggins.’ …I’d go and do… maybe play an opposing team’s coach or something and be onscreen for like 8 seconds. I would do that. Just a little [bit].
Listen, I know Riggins helped out Coach during Season 4 and could conceivably have ended up as a coach himself, but to me, the young jock's entire story arc was overcoming his family odds and learning to have healthier relationships. I never really saw him going down the same path Billy did as a coach. To me learning to be reliable and show up for the team was what Tim needed to thrive rather than just survive. Football gave him structure, but his arc was more one of growing out of one’s circumstances and finding a place (Texas) to call home.
On that note, a lot of fans would have liked to have seen him “officially” end up with Tyra (Adrianne Palicki). While I’m not sure that relationship would have worked out over the long haul, I’d like to think that Tim’s future would have been to be a good father figure like he was to neighbor kid Bo Miller early on in the series. Maybe he should pop in as a parent of a kid on the high school team or even on an opposing high school team?
I guess what I’m saying is I don’t care about how big the role is, but I’d like to see what happened to Tim Riggins between the end of the show and now. Even if it's only one or two episodes, I think seeing him as a coach on the field for eight seconds wouldn’t accomplish what I would want as a viewer, and I’m not sure the coach bit even makes the most sense for his character. Being a parent of a teenager or some other slightly larger role could accomplish that, however, if it was done well.
Don’t Get Me Wrong, It’s Great Taylor Kitsch Would Be Willing To Appear
Kitsch has been really active on the TV scene still in the time since Friday Night Lights officially ended back in 2011. He’s in the popular series The Terminal List, which has Season 2 on the way. He had a big role in one of the seasons of True Detective and more recently has appeared in TV miniseries like Waco and Painkiller. I wish he’d be open to a larger role in the reboot, but I’d be happy to see him appear in general and (the good news) he does seem interested in the prospect.
As he even noted, it’s possible that Kitsch could come back and not play a character related to the original at all, as he told Sirius XM he’d be open to doing both Riggins or a new role.
I suppose we should be grateful if he makes time between his work on The Terminal List and other big gigs coming to the 2025 TV schedule to sign on for a remake of the show that made him a household name. I am grateful for whatever we get, particularly given Kyle Chandler also recently admitted he hasn’t been contacted… yet. This is semi surprising given Berg has said he’d like both back for an FNL movie in the past. We’ll likely hear more in the coming months, however.
For now, I’m just saying Tim Riggins as maybe not dad of the year, but a dad who’s really putting the effort in? Where do I sign up?
