The new version will reunite several key members of the original series' creative team: series creator and pilot director Peter Berg, showrunner Jason Katims and executive producer Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment. All three will executive produce the reboot, along with Imagine's Kristen Zolner, with Katims once again serving as showrunner.
The synopsis for the new Friday Night Lights reads: “After a devastating hurricane, an incomplete high school American football team and their damaged interim coach make an unlikely attempt to win the Texas high school state championship and become a beacon of light for their city. " That description would likely move the new project from the original series' fictional location of Dillon, Texas, which — based on all evidence from the five seasons — was not on the state's Gulf Coast.
Friday Night Lights was inspired by a 1990 non-fiction book by H.G. 'Buzz' Bissinger about the football team of Permian High School in Odessa, Texas. Berg directed and co-wrote the 2004 film adaptation of the book before creating the series, which aired on NBC and DirecTV's 101 Network.
Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton led the cast of the original, which also starred Jesse Plemons, Taylor Kitsch, Zach Gilford, Minka Kelly, Gaius Charles, Scott Porter, Aimee Teegarden, Adrianne Palicki and Michael B. Jordan. The series was a springboard for a number of actors who played students and American football players.
The series never became a huge hit — hence the network-sharing agreement between NBC and DirecTV for seasons three through five — but it was a critical favorite with a cult following. Friday Night Lights won three Emmys, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama for Chandler and Outstanding Writer in a Drama (Katims) in the final season.
