The cult classic animated series Clone High from entertainment masterminds Phil Lord and Chris Miller is an underappreciated gem of a show that was ahead of its time. Released during MTV’s animation heyday in the early ’00s, Clone High was lost amid a sea of well-written adult animation and was cancelled after just one season on the air. While the show has grown a decent fanbase over the years, it is pretty definitively a cult series. Thankfully, the Clone High brand has been given a chance to redeem itself with an all-new series reboot; or should we say clone?
The new Clone High series was first announced as in development for MTV last summer but now looks to have made the jump over to HBO Max where it has already been given a two-season straight-to-series order, While the vote of confidence in this new take on the series certainly gives fans of the original hope that it will be better received by the masses this time around, nothing is ever truly guaranteed.
This all-new take on the Clone High series is being re-imagined by the same team that created the original series; Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Bill Lawrence. The trio of creatives is set to both write and executive produce the show in support of the new series showrunner Erica Rivinoja.
While Lord and Miller weren’t super well known at the time the original series was released, the pair have since gone on to produce a number of high-profile projects like The Lego Movie (2014) and the 21 Jump Street (2012) franchises, as well as the wildly successful Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse (2018). Meanwhile, Bill Lawrence had only just launched his own sitcom Scrubs (2001) just before Clone High came and went; a show which would end up becoming one of the biggest series of the decade.
Erica Rivinoja, who is the showrunner for the new series, was also involved with the original Clone High as a writer. In the time between the original series cancellation and this revival, Rivinoja has made quite a name for herself as a writer on projects including Trolls (2016), The Addams Family (2019), and Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020).
Just like the original Clone High, the new series will follow the story of a high school that is populated with the teenaged clones of famous figures from throughout history. This gave the show a wide range of stories to tackle thanks to the unique situations that arise when you mix a batch of historical figures from various time periods and combine that with hormones and the usual teen high school drama.
The short-lived original series gave us characters like Abraham Lincoln (Will Forte), Cleopatra (Christa Miller), John F. Kennedy (Chris Miller), Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan), and Mahatma Gandhi (Michael McDonald) as the series regulars, along with a number of guest stars from across both history and early 2000s Hollywood.
Many of the questions that fans have about the new series fall under one larger umbrella of a question- “what will stay and what will go?“. How exactly will the series be updated to reflect its new 2021 setting after we last left it nearly two decades ago in 2003? Will any of the characters we already know and love be returning? And if so, will they be reuniting the original voice cast or bringing in new talent?
While the series is a reboot and leaves the opportunity for the show to start completely fresh with a clean slate, the original Clone High ended on a cliffhanger that perfectly sets up a long-term delay for our entire cast
*Spoiler Alert for a twenty-year-old television series*
as they were left frozen alive inside a giant freezer in the season finale. That means that all it would take is a quick thaw to bring any of our favorite characters back, or alternatively the grim implication that not all of them survived the ordeal if any of the original cast decided not to return.
There was notably quite a bit of controversy surrounding the original Clone High‘s depiction of Gandhi, a character which Lord and Miller previously joked about leaving out of the second season that never materialized. The plan was apparently to just never address Gandhi’s absence even though he was one of the show’s lead characters, or to later reveal that he had actually been a failed clone of Gary Coleman all along. This reboot gives them the chance to either course-correct the character or leave him out entirely. Or, you know, to just start completely from scratch by using the original concept with all new characters. But really, after two decades of waiting, who wouldn’t want to see our old favorites back?
Either way, we thankfully will not have to wait too long to find out as it is expected we will see the new Clone High premiering on HBO Max either late this year or early next year. The service is rapidly expanding its original content library with new projects like Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai, James Gunn‘s Peacemaker, the newly announced Velma adult-animated series, the rumored reboot of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League: The Snyder Cut, and of course the entire 2021 Warner Bros. film slate. HBO Max is certainly doing everything it can to make a name for itself in the streaming wars, and a minimum guarantee of two seasons of a new Clone High is very much a cherry on top of an already promising list of upcoming entertainment.
Are you excited for the new Clone High reboot? Do you think they should bring back the original cast and characters, or start fresh and allow this reboot to be its own thing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to stick around Geek Anything for more animation updates!
