Over the summer, ABC announced that it was developing a reboot of The Wonder Years with Saladin Patterson, Lee Daniels, and original Wonder Years star Fred Savage on board as executive producers—with Savage also directing the pilot and original series co-creator Neal Marlens serving as a “consultant.” Though the new show will take place concurrently with the original (1968, to be exact), it will center on a Black family living in Alabama rather than a white family living in unspecified suburbia. That opens the door for some exciting Marvel-style CG work where the new characters meet young Kevin and Winnie, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Today, ABC announced who will be starring in the new Wonder Years, but rather than just putting out a press release and saying “here’s the new kid,” the network released a video of Fred Savage telling the new kid—Elisha “E.J.” Williams, who you may recognize from Henry Danger—that he got the job.
It’s a cute clip, both because this all does seem to mean a lot to Savage and because Williams makes a very relatable reference to the fact that it would all be more exciting if Savage’s video hadn’t stuttered while he was sharing the big news. Stars: They have crummy internet sometimes just like us! The new Wonder Years is probably a ways off, since they just announced who the star will be today and it’s the kind of show that would be hard to film on Zoom (given the time period).