ABC sent viewers for a ride down memory lane as the network released the first official trailer for Lee Daniels reboot of The Wonder Years on Tuesday.
The 54 second preview immediately hits watchers with a double dose of nostalgia by heading back to the 1960s suburbs, scored by the same theme song as the original series: Joe Cocker s With a Little Help from My Friends.
Original series star Fred Savage, who played Kevin Arnold, directed the pilot episode for the revival which will air Wednesdays on ABC between The Goldbergs and The Conners.
Revival: ABC sent viewers for a ride down memory lane as the network released the first official trailer for Lee Daniels reboot of The Wonder Years on Tuesday
Elisha “EJ” Williams (
Henry Danger) in the role of Dean Williams, who takes the place of Fred Savage’s character Kevin Arnold.
Don Cheadle will provide the voice of adult Dean, who will narrate the series, just as
Home Alone co-star Daniel Stern did in the original version of
The Wonder Years.
Running from 1988 through 1993, The Wonder Years was a beloved series that was nominated for and won several Emmys and Golden Globes. It famously tackled young love and family drama, not to mention historical 1960s issues such as racism and the controversy of the Vietnam War. However, it did so through the perspective of a middle class white family. Similar stories and issues will look drastically different through the eyes of a Black family living in the South during the 1960s, and it sounds like one of the more compelling reboots that have come together in recent years.
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First look at the cast of Lee Daniels The Wonder Years reboot
Marvel star Don Cheadle will narrate the series. 10/04/2021
The Wonder Yearsis the latest show to join the world of reboots. A new adaptation is in the works from
Empire co-creator Lee Daniels and is set to air on ABC.
Daniels recently shared an exciting update on the
revival as he posted a picture on his Twitter page, which featured the new cast all in character. @leedanielsentTwitter
By Stacy Lambe ABC/Lee Daniels
The Wonder Years is getting the reboot treatment at ABC, and filmmaker Lee Daniels has shared the first look at the new cast. The upcoming series, which received a pilot order from the network, will star Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean Williams, taking over for Fred Savage, who played the central character, Kevin Arnold, in the original run.
Rounding out the rest of the Williams family is Dulé Hill as Bill, the patriarch who is a music professor by day and a funk musician by night, Saycon Sengbloh as his perceptive and good-humored wife, Lillian, with Laura Kariuki as Kim, Dean’s confident and popular teenage sister.