During an age where Hollywood is grabbing at every opportunity to reboot a well-received show that’s been off the air for years, it appears that in this particular instance, that won’t be the case. In spite of the major influence thatThe Boondockshas had on popular culture, it appears, for now, that the adult cartoon will not be brought back for new episodes.
For the past several months, rumors had been swirling that the popularAdult Swimseries had a reboot in the works. Although many actorsinvolved inThe Boondockswere all aboard the reboot train, it appears Sony felt otherwise.
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In recent days, Cedric Yarbrough, who voiced characters Tom Dubois and Colonel H. Stinkmeaner on the show, confirmedThe Boondocksrevival has been axed. “I hate to say this, but… the show is, right now, not coming back,” Yarbrough said during an interview on 1-on-1 w/Deuces. “We’ve been wanting to do the show and Sony… decided they’re going to pull the plug… Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to revisit it. If we don’t, then that’s what it is, but, I wish that the show was coming back.”
This is pretty shocking seeing how Hollywood has been churning out reboots by the truckload in recent years. Granted, rebooting the show as a whole would have been tough seeing how John Witherspoon, who voiced Huey and Riley Freeman’s grandfather Robert Jebediah Freeman, passed away on October 29th, 2019. Then again,theToy Storyfranchisehad a similar predicament when Jim Varney, the voice of Slinky, died shortly after the release ofToy Story 2, and they worked around it. If Sony truly was desperate for this show to be rebooted, they would have made it work, but, sadly, that wasn’t the case this time.
But as they say, when a door closes, a window opens. Just because the folks atSony at this very momentdo not currently want a reboot ofThe Boondocksdoes not mean they won’t change their mind years down the line. Also, just because the idea of rebooting the cartoon itself has, for the time being, been shot down does not mean the show can’t come back in a different form. Series creator Aaron McGruder has previously tried to crowdfund a live-action adaptation of Uncle Ruckus, but that didn’t get much headway. Perhaps this recent development may change that.
Or perhaps this time, we should leave good alone. It’s obvious why fans would love to seeThe Boondocksbrought back on the air. The show brought various facets of African American culture to light that had hardly ever been touched on in the past, thus making it one of the more influential sitcoms of its time. It would be intriguing to see what the show would have to say about our current political climate, and McGruder’s efforts have demonstrated he clearly has a few more ideas up his sleeve. The problem is, we’ve seen shows previously popular for how they represented minorities not get the reception they wantedwhen it was rebooted-Will and Gracecomes to mind - so maybe, just maybe,The Boondocksmight be better off as they are now - retired.
The Boondockscan currently be streamed on Hulu and HBO Max.
Source:1-on-1 w/Deuces
