Cheers, queers: streaming service Peacock has announced it will move forward with a full series order for a reboot of Queer as Folk.
The Hollywood Reporter now reports that Stephen Dunn, noted for directing an episode of the anthology series Little America, will executive produce and reimagine the project under the watchful eye of Russell T. Davies, the man responsible for the original British series in 1999. This new version–also unrelated to the Showtime reboot that debuted in 2000–will examine the lives of a group of queer friends living in New Orleans. Dunn has worked to develop the project since 2018.
Related: Queer As Folk cast reunite online this week for COVID-19 fundraiser
“It is a surreal honor to adapt the notoriously groundbreaking series by Russell T. Davies,” Dunn said in a statement. “When the show originally aired, the idea of unapologetic queer stories on TV was so provocative that I felt I could only watch Queer as Folk in secret. But so much has changed in the last 20 years and how wonderful would it be if the next generation didn’t have to watch Queer as Folk alone in their dank basements with the sound muted, but with their family and friends and the volume cranked all the way to the max.”
Peacock has commissioned an eight-episode season for the new show, though no release date has been announced of yet.
Both the original UK version of Queer as Folk and its US reboot earned wide acclaim for their groundbreaking depiction of LGBTQ characters and queer life. The UK series ran for eight episodes plus a two-part wrap-up movie, while the US series ran five seasons. Original series creator Russell T. Davies caused a stir with the release of another queer-themed series, It’s a Sin, earlier this year.
Catholicslutbox
Hopefully it doesn’t suck like the US version…
Hunter…reason one
Dymension
I didn’t mind the U.S. version, at least the first 2-3 years.
LumpyPillows
Agree with Dymension.
James26
I watched it all on DVD. The 1st season was pretty good, but it was just tracking the plot of the UK version. It was in season 2 where it started to become crap. I remember an episode where Brian puts ecstasy into punch served to a group of lesbians at a baby shower. These are women who don’t do drugs and they were all drugged without their consent, with a baby in the house. And the whole thing is treated by all of these characters as a joke. Even a character who despised Brian and who would certainly have called the police on him for drugging her and her guests, acted like it was a big joke. That was the point where I realized that QaF was basically just a soap opera and not to be taken seriously.
Chrisk
James26
You mean to tell me that we were suppose to take QAF seriously? Wow. Seriously? Lol
jcool
james26
yeah, i know what you mean. the year i realized dynasty was just a soap opera and not to be taken seriously was pretty rough
James26
@ChrisK Believe it or not, QaF was seen originally as groundbreaking drama, the 1st time that a TV series focused on the lives of LGB people. And it deserved to be taken seriously because it represented an important cultural moment in the UK and later the US. The UK version was extremely well written drama. No, I didn’t think that QaF, even at its best, was the greatest TV ever produced, but it was certainly better than a soap. But the US version took it down to the level of soap opera.
CityguyUSA
Gee, I thought it was the UK version that sucked and ultimately why it didn’t last near as long.
Godabed
hopefully the queers in the show will be more than just cis white lesbians and gays living their best life in the gayborhoods (played by mostly straight people). DTLA was a much better show, and should have gotten more seasons.
I was so disappointed that the only black representation I got was the black best friend who was eventually treated like sh*t and discarded, and the occasionally random black hookup for Brian.
Heywood Jablowme
The new show will be set in New Orleans which should make it harder to ignore black characters – though not impossible if the writing is bad!
LumpyPillows
Maybe you should not watch TV with all your requirements.
[email protected]
lumpy, rather watch a series with characters that reflect real life. poc and trans do that. nice snidely tone btw.
Chrisk
This is why these show’s couldn’t would have a hard time today. Too many bitchers complaining loudly on the internet that it doesn’t represent this and it doesn’t have that and demanding it be taken off the air. The internet really changed that Unfortunetly.
kumagiri
@Heywood Jablowme “Looking” was set in SF, yet zero Asian characters.
Josh447
Love it.
James26
Hopefully, the show will have some gay characters. “Queer” characters are boring.
dhmonarch89
maybe kids under 16 watched it ‘alone in their dank basements with the sound muted’ but most of it’s audience was over 20 and we watched (at least the first season) with friends and discussed. If you can watch this with mom and dad- it’s really not QAF, it’s just piggy backing off it’s name.
Prax07
I can just picture how bad it’s going to be. A cast full of poc and trans. Pass on this.
Kangol2
@Prax07, you should write them and ask that they do a Queer as Volk set in rural northern Vermont, Minnesota or Idaho, or in one of the remaining Whitopias around the US. Also ask for buff cis but non sis Proud Goy types. I’m sure there’d be takers in Hollywood. Quintuple gag in advance!
craigbear
How would having POC and trans characters in it make it “bad”, exactly?
Cam
In other words you think a series can’t be good unless it’s an all white cast?
Thanks for playing troll!
James
GO BACK TO YOUR TRUMP FAN CLUB LOSER.
Fahd
I usually like the original of a movie or tv series better than the sequels/reboots. I think it will be the same here. Maybe there are only a finite number of TV scripts that have to be repeatedly rehashed/adapted (nothing new under the sun), but I wish there were a way to take a chance on an original series (or adaptation from literature/movie) with a gay theme. As Dunn himself says, so much has changed in the last 20 years.
WashDrySpin
great more white gay drama…UGH…seen enough of it…
B
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JromeGervais09
My husband and I watched the original US version of Queer as Folk in the 1990s and it was amazing with great writing and actors. However, with sex and nudity showing up more and more, I don’t want this to turn into “made for public porn”. I want to see more normal lives of gay families now that it is 2021. There has been much more acceptance, with gay families and children. I want to see the real gay life as it is. Not the party party party as it was still in the 1990s I go back to 1969 and Stonewall, so I’ve seen the change my risk taking at work did for the overall movement for our civil rights and marriage.
Troyfight
@JromeGervais09 ….can’t they have both?
dhmonarch89
US version debuted in 2001
Chrisk
If depends on the age range. They were mostly in their twenties and partying, sex, and drugs go hand in hand with that. How many twenty somethings are into the family life?
They were talking about bringing the original US version cast back as a reboot or movie. Now you would expect a more normal life as they’re all middle aged now.
skyboy63
Prax07 sorry that you are offended that POC and Trans People seek representation. Duly noted JERK.
Cam
The more LGBTQ content on TV the better. Hopefully it’s a good show.
TedV
I get that we’ve evolved and some in our community have adopted the heteronormative ethos of marraige, kids, PTA meetings and a house in the suburbs. But that’s still a distinct minority in our community. I, for one, DO like seeing gay men enjoying a more footloose lifestyle, and I think there’s room for both depictions. But count me out on any QAF reboot that aims to just show middle class, suburban angst but with same-sex parents.
Kangol2
I tend to dislike reboots because so often they fail to adequate adapt to the changing times, and always wish that the writers and producers, rather than trying to capitalize on what worked in the past, looked at the current moment and tried to reflect that in something new. It does happen, as Lena Waithe’s brilliant show Twenties demonstrated; that show about a young, butch lesbian trying to become a writer in Hollywood felt very current, was well acted and written, and showed a side of the world I know about but rarely see on screen. The new QAF might update the world of its characters to reflect LGBTQ people or even just gay men in American society in 2021; I hope so. But I’d also love to see a series that made that its focus, and it would include all kinds of LGBTQ people.
ognibb
Hi Kangol2- referring back your previous comment about locating the show in a different part of the country- like Idaho, etc., that’s where we are! There are indeed thriving GLBTQ+ communities in the larger Inland Northwest cities, with social networks, nightlife, dating & drama. Come for the Scenery…stay for the Friendships!!
lykeitiz
The internet police trolls are exhausting with their bashing of anything that doesn’t include POC. The U.S. version of QAF was groundbreaking for its time. The production values, script, and acting had not been served up at that high profile before (not even with PBS’s Tales of the City). Flash forward a few years and we now have Pose breaking new ground in the same ways. See how easy it is to recognize BOTH a cis-white show AND a show about POC? It’s not that hard. Different shows – different stories. Hopefully the new QAF will be quality regardless of the skin tone, although being shot in New Orleans, hopefully it will be diverse.
James
AND YOU VOTED FOR TRUMP, RIGHT.
ShaunNJ
The British series seemed really well done. The US version had its moments and might be commended for tackling most issues facing gay people at the time. Both could have had people of other races featured, something Davies has done well with Cucumber, Banana and It’s a Sin. It’s quite hard to not see a black person in Pittsburgh – that’s as fictional as the depiction of Liberty Ave on US QAF.
I hope the new series will be diverse and relevant. I would like to have seen an update of the US QAF series: what became of the young children, who’d be young adults now? Did Michael and Brian, or Brian and Justin end up together? How is the show changed with marriage equality, PrEP, contemporary politics and aged characters? Much potential which we’ll maybe see intertwined into the New Orleans stories.
wikidBSTN
I LOVED the original UK version – with its funky Russell T Davies Manchester vibe. Looking forward to seeing what they can do with this newest ideation.
Josh447
I saw the UK version and thought the US version was much much better.
Troyfight
@Josh447 ….nice. One of the first I’ve ever heard say that. I liked the US version too
James
I HOPE IT IS NOT A BUNCH OF SMUG LOOK-AT-ME-I’M-SO-GREAT LOSERS LIKE THE FIRST ONE.
Terrycloth
Just like the queer eye for the straight guy .the first one was the best. I couldn’t stomach the reboot especially Jonathan