The Big Change We Could See On The King Of The Hill Reboot

A lot of long-running media franchises either depict the characters aging extremely slowly in comparison to their actual timeline, or the creators choose to have them remain ageless. "The Simpsons," thanks to animation, has chosen to keep the characters the same ages from when the show debuted in 1989. However, this has required rewriting 'The Simpsons" timeline on multiple occasions, and there have also been several episodes set in the future.

"King of the Hill" meanwhile allowed Hank Hill (Mike Judge), Peggy (Kathy Najimy), and Bobby (Pamela Adlon) to gradually shift and get a little older over the course of 13 seasons. Joseph Gribble (Breckin Meyer) changes the most because of his awkward adolescence, while Luanne Platter (Brittany Murphy) gets married to Lucky (Tom Petty) and becomes pregnant. The series finale, "To Sirloin With Love," also suggests that Bobby and Hank have formed a bond at last over grilling steaks together.

Lately there have been more rumors of a reboot or revival of "King of the Hill," including a big change to the characters.

"King of the Hill" co-creator Greg Daniels confirmed to Collider earlier in 2022 that one bit of gossip around the potential revival of the show was accurate: if the Fox series returns, the characters will have aged about 15 years in real time. "The idea is a time jump, yeah, so the characters are a bit older," Daniels said.

It's exciting for "King of the Hill" fans to imagine what preteens Bobby Hill, Joseph, and Connie (Lauren Tom) are like as adults, and what they've been doing for the past 15 years. However, Daniels also wanted to emphasize that a reboot is not firmly in the works yet: "We don't have a deal to do it. I'm not exactly sure if we phrased it wrong, maybe, but it's still not 100%."

Part of the problem is that Daniels and co-creator Mike Judge each have busy schedules, so it's harder for both of them to work on a revival together. But Judge still seemed confident in the show eventually returning, even telling a San Diego Comic Con audience in July, "'King of the Hill' has a very good chance of coming back" (MovieWeb).