If you like watching TV at all (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?), you’re probably getting pretty familiar with reboots. Over the past several years, the reboot has become a dominant trend in television, with dozens of past shows being revived, reimagined, and recast for a new generation. Some are better than others (and some are downright bad), but they all come down to the same basic idea.
Sometimes these updated shows can be pretty controversial. Fans often have strong reactions to big changes in their favorite classics, but sometimes the ~drama~ comes straight from the source when cast members from the original shows have comments on the reboot – and they’re not exactly positive. Some just choose not to participate, while others want the whole thing burned to the ground. Let’s take a look at some of the stars who weren’t so thrilled about reboots:
18. Melissa Joan Hart – Sabrina the Teenage Witch
Netflix is currently working on a new Sabrina series, but it will be a much different take than Melissa Joan Hart‘s hilarious performance back in the ’90s. Set in the same universe as Riverdale, the show will be much darker, with producers describing it with more of a horror vibe.
Melissa Joan Hart – while maybe not “against” the reboot – is surely not that impressed. She says she’s “indifferent” to the show being redone, but in the same breath, she mentioned, “Nowadays, everybody is just doing the same old stuff again.” She is, however, glad they’re taking a different approach. She said that if it were more similar to her show, “it would probably fall on its face.” Ouch.
17. Catherine Cavadini, Tara Strong & E.G. Daily – The Powerpuff Girls
The three women behind The Powerpuff Girls might not be household names, but they’re important nonetheless. They’ve voiced Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup since the late ’90s, but apparently, Cartoon Network isn’t too attached to their voices. When a new Powerpuff series was announced back in 2015, the original trio were not included. Tara Strong tweeted that the news was like “a stab in the heart,” and the other two were equally upset. They each tweeted that they were hurt, but I guess that’s just show business?
16. Jennie Garth – 90210
Beverly Hills, 90210 was one of the biggest teen hits of the 1990s, and it was rebooted just eight years after its original finale. Many of the original stars made guest appearances on the newer show, but Jennie Garth appeared on the show for 20 episodes. That doesn’t mean she was the biggest fan of the younger generation’s reboot, though, though. In a radio interview with her former costar Tori Spelling, Garth said of the reboot: “That’s an example of a cast that really didn’t have that chemistry, you know?” Nice to know that the Beverly Hills gang isn’t above being a little catty, even after all these years.
15. Lauren Graham & Alexis Bledel – Gilmore Girls
Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel both love Gilmore Girls, but that doesn’t mean they never want to leave it behind. There had been talk of a reunion for years, and it finally happened in 2016, when Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was released on Netflix. But this mini-reboot was just four episodes, and the two stars are reluctant to agree to do more. They’ve both spoken about how they only want to do it if it really makes sense for the characters, and they don’t want to overstay their welcome. We understand this from a creative perspective, but we’d also love endless seasons of Gilmore Girls.
14. The original Power Rangers
Last year, Power Rangers was rebooted for the big screen, with glossy production values and lots of action. The movie was met with mixed reviews, but the original stars of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers had nothing nice to say. They were disappointed that the movie got rid of the more quirky, humorous elements of the original show, instead of going with a darker, more sinister vibe. David Yost, who played the Blue Ranger had one particular criticism. “When we said, ‘It’s morphing time!,’ it was like, ‘Sh*t’s about to go down!’ When they said it in the movie it was so lackadaisical I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’”
The original Black Ranger was also frustrated that they made his character Asian in the movie, which sounds more like a personal problem than an actual complaint about the movie. The movie underperformed at the box office, so there likely won’t be any sequels to cause drama.
13. Richard Dean Anderson – MacGyver
On the original MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson gained lots of fans with his charming good looks and innovative methods to dismantle bombs just in the nick of time. But when CBS decided to revamp the ’80s hit, Anderson wanted nothing to do with it. The showrunners quickly announced that they wanted the original star to be a part of the new show, but he shut down any discussions with this statement: “All I can say is, I’m not considering being a part of a project that has overlooked the insanely LOYAL FANS of the original character and has proceeded without considering how and why they all became and STAYED loyal fans…” Yeah, so that’s a no.
12. Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Few shows have a more passionate fandom than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so naturally, there’s constant talk of a reboot. Only problem is, the people with the power don’t want it to happen. Lead actress Sarah Michelle Gellar said in a 2017 interview that she wants to see new stories being told, not the old ones being rehashed. She also said she doesn’t think her body could handle the action on the show anymore. Sarah also doesn’t know how the messages in the show would translate today, whatever that means. Basically, just don’t get your hopes up for a reboot any time soon. SMG allegedly was a big reason the show decided to wrap after season seven, so we don’t expect her to return to the character in a major way any time soon.
11. Gordon Thomson – Dynasty
In its original iteration, Dynasty was a huge hit that ran for nine seasons. The CW brought back the primetime soap opera in the fall of 2017, but original star Gordon Thomson had absolutely nothing nice to say about the reboot. “The acting is dreadful, truly dreadful. The writing is appalling.” Take note, he made this statement before the show had even premiered. He also called the entire thing “insulting,” and said that original executive producer Aaron Spelling would be “having major fits in his grave.” Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed!
10. The entire Jersey Shore cast – Floribama Shore
Last fall, when MTV announced their new reality show Floribama Shore, we mostly just rolled our eyes and went about what we were doing. But the cast of the iconic Jersey Shore was pretty friggin’ pissed off, to use their language. At first, the fans started to complain about the new show, but pretty soon the cast took to Twitter as well. The Situation tweeted out an unofficial petition to revive his show with the OG cast, telling everyone to retweet to show their support. The entire original Jersey Shore cast retweeted, and they also liked lots of fan tweets about bringing back the show. It worked, at least!
9. Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola – Jersey Shore Family Vacation
Ask and ye shall receive. Not long after the drama went down with Floribama Shore, MTV announced that they were getting the gang back together for Jersey Shore Family Vacation in 2018. The only person missing from the announcement was Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola. Sammi offered no explanation for her absence, but Snooki thankfully spilled the tea on her podcast. Nicole Polizzi said that Sammi is worried about jumping back into the drama and seeing Ronnie again, and we can’t necessarily blame her. “Being that there was a lot of Ron and Sam drama when we did film, it was just really hard on both of them. So I just think she doesn’t want that anymore,” Snooks divulged. Everyone’s still hoping she’ll make a surprise appearance, but we’ll see.
8. Kim Cattrall – Sex and the City
The core four of Sex and the City have stuck together through six seasons on TV and two feature films, but Kim Cattrall is officially done playing Samantha. For years now, it’s been a known fact that everyone else is down to make a third movie, but Kim wants no part of it. She’s slammed Sarah Jessica Parker and others involved with the show for their poor treatment of her, saying that they were never really friends. She recently called out SJP for showing support on social media after her brother passed away after years of mistreatment, so it doesn’t seem like this feud is ending anytime soon. Maybe someday there will be more Sex and the City but we’re not counting on it.
7. Maggie Smith – Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey ran for six seasons before drawing to a close, but fans have always wanted more. There have been steady rumors that the cast will reunite to make a movie as a proper finale, but there will be at least one notable absence. Maggie Smith, who won awards for her performance as the Dowager Countess, has said she’s glad the show is over, and she wouldn’t return for a possible movie. She claims that her character would be far too old to be realistic and that she asked to be killed off in the series finale. We’ll miss her biting humor and wisdom, but her character was fun while it lasted.
6. Will Smith – The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Will Smith won’t be headed back to Bel-Air, at least not on TV. Fresh Prince is one of the biggest nostalgic shows, but Smith has no desire to revive it. As of now, his official response is this: “I don’t think ever, like pretty close to when hell freezes over.” I’m usually an optimist, but that really doesn’t seem promising. Honestly, why would he want to go back to it, when he has a successful film career and more money than you could ever spend? Some ’90s shows can stay in the ’90s, there’s nothing wrong with that.
5. Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen – Fuller House
Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen made their acting debuts on Full House as Michelle Tanner when they were literal babies, and it set them up as the biggest child stars of a generation. They had TV roles, lots of movies, and lots of money, before they were even old enough to spend it. But they also got tired of acting before too long. The sisters have long since retired from the performing, choosing instead to spend their time mostly in fashion. They’ve repeatedly been asked to appear on Netflix’s Fuller House, but series creator Jeff Franklin said he’s given up asking them. They’re probably okay with that.
4. Holly Marie Combs – Charmed
The CW’s Charmed reboot hasn’t even begun filming yet, but it’s already been the source of plenty of drama. After more than a year in development, the series pilot was officially ordered last month, and OG star Holly Marie Combs was furious about it. She tweeted this: “Charmed belongs to the 4 of us, our vast amount of writers, crews and predominantly the fans. FYI you will not fool them by owning a title/stamp. So bye.” Yeah, she’s really not into it. It remains to be seen whether fans will love the new Charmed, but Holly definitely has her opinions.
3. Shannen Doherty – Charmed
Holly Marie Combs isn’t the only original Charmed star who isn’t thrilled with the reboot plans. Shannen Doherty has also been outspoken about the reboot, but her concerns are a little different. The new show is described as a “fierce, funny, feminist reboot of the original series,” but Shannen says that the original show was already feminist. She called this description “terrible and a bit offensive,” and suggested that perhaps it was written by “a millennial that never watched the show.” I don’t know how much Shannen and Holly still hang out, but they should probably hate-watch the Charmed reboot together.
2. Alyssa Milano – Charmed
The former Phoebe Halliwell also expressed not being thrilled about her show’s reboot. Alyssa Milano took to Twitter to say, “The thing about them doing a #charmed reboot is… it just… it feels like yesterday.” Alyssa’s said in the past that she imagines the set of Charmed behind-the-scenes to be a bit like high school – saying that because Shannen and Holly had been friends for so long before the show, things could get cliquey. Looks like she probably doesn’t want to return for those memories!
1. Rose McGowan – Charmed
Yep, we’ve got 4/4 Charmed ones saying ‘this is stupid’ to the Charmed reboot. Just after plans to revive the series were announced publicly, Rose McGowan called it “lame,” and added, “They really are running out of ideas in Hollywood.” She’s since said she “[doesn’t] like” Charmed co-star Alyssa Milano, so perhaps her memories of filming just aren’t very fond either. It’s safe to say that at this time, Rose has bigger fish to fry than a TV reboot, though.