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As previously reported, Queer As Folk is due to return, with NBC’s streaming service Peacock commissioning a reboot featuring an all-new cast.
Deadline has provided an update on some of those cast members and other details about the new production.
Among those joining the show will be Candace Grace (Acts of Crime), Johnny Sibilly (Pose, Hacks), Devin Way (Dr. Blake Simms on Grey’s Anatomy, Station 19), and Fin Argus (Clouds, The Gifted).
Sibilly will play, “a successful lawyer who is not as put together as he seems,” according to a press release from Peacock.
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Grace will “play a non-binary professor navigating the rocky transition from punk to parenthood.”
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Way will be a “charming and sometimes chaotic commitment-phobe who finds a reason to stay in New Orleans after tragedy rocks his community,” and Argus “a cocky high schooler whose confidence belies his lack of real world experience.”
Related: It’s official: ‘Queer as Folk’ is coming back
It was previously announced in mid-August that Jesse James Keitel (Big Sky) was a cast member, playing a “trans, semi-reformed party girl who is struggling to grow up.”
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The new show has been created by Stephen Dunn, and is a reboot of the original series set in Manchester, England, written by Russell T. Davies. This series will be based in New Orleans and the characters will be picking up their lives in the aftermath of a tragedy.
Dunn has created, written and executive produced the show, and will direct the first episode.
“It is a surreal honor to adapt the notoriously groundbreaking series by Russell T. Davies,” said Dunn in a statement when the show was first announced.
“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.”
The original Queer As Folk aired on Channel 4 in the UK in 1999. A US remake, set in Pittsburgh, premiered on Showtime and ran from 2000-2005. There is no date yet for when the new production will hit Peacock.
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UPDATE
Shortly after this story was published, it was also announced by Deadline that Ryan O’Connell would be joining the show. O’Connell will portray “a pop culture nerd with cerebral palsy who is more than ready for some independence.” On his Instagram, O’Connell joked, “I’m playing the gay one :)”
Chrisk
Is this going to be like a boyband. Every generation will have it’s very own Queer as Folk. Lol
Hank31
lol. This looks like garbage.
Cam
Translation: The same old right wing troll account ALWAYS attacks anything LGBTQ that will be on TV or the movies.
Your trolling is boring and sad.
LumpyPillows
Hank, why would you be so negative?
Hank31
@Lumpypillows I’m negative b/c it’s sad to see a great gay cultural artifact be run into the ground. The original QaF from the UK was a national and international phenomenon, a sharply written comedy-drama with gay and lesbian relationships at the center. A first for a UK series. The whole thing was smart, engaging and entertaining.
Then came the US version, and the quality of writing went down. It wasn’t as funny or as interesting and it relied upon daytime soap opera plot gimmicks. And now we have yet another reboot and this time it’s not even about gay people. Now it’s about mentally ill people suffering from gender dysphoria and “nonbinaries.” Just think, whole episodes about a “nonbinary” character’s pronoun issues!
Cam
@Hank31
It’s adorable when the right wing troll tries to start off sounding like it’s somewhat sane.
Then it can’t hold back and starts calling half the LGBTQ community mentally ill.
Sweetie, no matter what Screename you’re under, your troll game is always sad and weak.
Kangol2
Why reboot this show yet again? Why not come up with a fresh idea, based on and set in 21st century America? There are more than enough talented, inventive writers, directors, producers and actors to pull something truly new and relevant off.
muscl954
Do we really need or want ANOTHER reboot of QAF? How about some ORIGINAL LGBTQ programming?
nitejonboy
I didn’t want the original, I agreed with those celebs who said it was setting the gay rights movement back by a decade or so just like THE BOYS IN THE BAND did before them. Must we always be portrayed as sluts and clowns and drug addicts ??
Heywood Jablowme
“Must we always be portrayed as sluts and clowns and drug addicts ??”
@nitejonboy: Naw, I’m worrying about it the other way. They’ll have a whole hour of the non-binary characters changing their pronouns and going around punishing everyone for not remembering their pronouns correctly (this week!). Personally I’d enjoy seeing some slutty action in the back room of Rawhide, but the new QAF probably won’t go there. And the drug dealers nowadays put fentanyl in everything, even cocaine, so any drug addicts will just die within a few episodes – if the show wants to be realistic.
I’ll give it a try, though.
Chrisk
Heywood Jablowme
Didn’t you hear. They want the new QAF to be family friendly. Absolutely no backroom action at places like the Babylon will be allowed.
“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”
nitejonboy
Oh god really ?? The original was awful enough. And do you have to set the damn thing in my home state ? As if New Orleans doesn’t have a bad enough reputation as it is. I wonder if they’ll actually film it here. It seems like when something is set in some random place, they film in New Orleans and yet when it is set there, they film it somewhere else like Canada! The exception being NCIS New Orleans which still shot only exteriors there mostly. Hell, even most of TRUE BLOOD wasn’t even filmed here in Louisiana after the first two seasons.
Cam
Sweetie, if you’re going to switch screenames to troll, try not to make it so similar to one you used a few years ago.
But at least we can always depend on your to come in and be ENRAGED that any LGBTQ show is going to be on TV.
Heywood Jablowme
@Cam: ?????
“The original was awful enough.” Obviously he’s not objecting to an “LGBTQ show” per se. He’s saying the American QAF was a bad show. That’s a pretty common opinion here.
You used to understand this distinction, yourself. You were always saying that “Looking” was a bad show, bad writing, characters made no sense etc. (and you were right IMO). But now you seem to believe any show with LGBTQ representation is automatically GOOD?
wiggie
ugh, another reboot. Original show is over 20 years old. Could have at least TRIED to find some original, modern gay shows.
Terrycloth
I didn’t like the original one..the 2nd version I thought I’d give it a try and Jonathan ruined it for me…there are some gay imaginative writers who can come up with something new and fresh….why does everything have to be a remake or a re.ake of a remake ??
LumpyPillows
Apparently, I am the only person who liked the original and the first American reboot. I’ll actually watch this version before passing judgment.
stanhope
And yet no Noah’s Arc redux……..do the math
Kangol2
There was that brief pandemic reboot, one episode, and most of the actors looked like they did when the show ceased production over a decade and a half ago. But Philaye’s Black Sex and the City or a similar show–maybe a Boyfriends to parallel Girlfriends or a gay version of Living Single, etc. would be great too.
inbama
On the plus side, at least it’s got Wanda Sykes.
sfhairy
Who the Eff is eagerly awaiting this? I would rather have Noah’s Arc, than Queer as Folk.