Leading CBS’s fall schedule with a mane of hair and a piece of tinsel that can somehow blow up an army convoy, the MacGyver TV reboot is highly anticipated by old people and 30-somethings who need all entertainment to be exactly what it was when they were kids in order to feel better about still living with their parents. However, Deadline reports that the reboot won’t be premiering in its original form—because it has been rebooted.
Despite being ordered to series by CBS, the network didn’t like the original MacGyver pilot, so executives scrapped it and hired Hawaii Five-0 showrunner Peter Lenkov to write a new script. Amid the rewrite—which apparently sees MacGyver creating a clandestine organization within the U.S. government rather than being recruited to one—it was decided that only lead actor Lucas Till and co-star George Eads will stay on from the original pilot. (They will be joined by new cast member Justin Hires as MacGyver’s “ambitious roommate.” Ambitious, like, sexually?) The changes to the new story are so significant that apparently Eads won’t even play the same character. But perhaps the biggest shakeup with this project is that executive producer James Wan, purveyor of spooky nurses and skydiving cars, will now direct the new pilot.
Wan originally was slated to direct the MacGyver reboot, but he had to drop out due to conflicts with post production on The Conjuring 2. (He was replaced by Californication director David Von Ancken.) Now that Wan’s film is in cinemas, he is free to shoot the new pilot before strapping on an oxygen tank and comically oversized flippers to embark on his undeniably laughable Aquaman project.
Lest anyone think this MacGyver project is in serious trouble with a failed pilot and a relentlessly impending air date, remember that it only takes a new writer, a new director, and five glue sticks to build a show that people will totally tolerate for years to come.