The worst thing that can happen to a show is getting canceled, and Friday Night Lights came pretty close to that. Thankfully, a few key factors helped keep the show going for as long as it did. However, even after it ended and despite not being a huge hit, there’s been talk of a movie for over a decade.
For Kyle Chandler, the star of the original series, he feels that the story wrapped up beautifully. It would be tough for him to step back into his role if a revival ever happened. Nevertheless, even though it’s been confirmed that this is no longer a possibility for the creator, somehow, the idea still seems to linger in the air.
Friday Night Lights Movie Isn’t A Good Idea For Kyle Chandler
Friday Night Lights was an NBC series that aired for five seasons from 2006 to 2011. Despite having a small audience, it received high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and won Emmy Awards for actors Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton.
The story was based on a book and a movie of the same name. It followed the events surrounding a high school football team, with a particular focus on the team’s coach, Eric Taylor, and his family. The plot also tackled themes such as school funding, racism, drugs, and abuse.
Low audience ultimately hurt the show, but shortly after it ended, plans for a movie started to take shape. The news was initially reported by Bill Simmons, editor of the Grantland website. However, Universal Pictures later stated that no project related to the series was in the works. (via TV Line)
Even so, the idea lingered, and in 2013, Chandler was even asked about it in an interview with BuzzFeed. He quickly indicated that he wasn’t interested in being involved in anything new related to Friday Night Lights, explaining his reasons behind it:
Friday Night Lights was a great movie, and the TV show. After five shots at it, five seasons, as it went on, it got smaller and smaller and smaller, and it almost got canceled. We were up against American Idol the first year and it got moved. [Producers] Jason Katims and Pete Berg and those guys kept it alive, kept the material so fresh, and ended the thing so perfectly. I think that’s a tribute to those guys. I like the ending of the show as much as I like the whole thing in the sense that it was just done so classy, it was just done so well. Hats off to those guys.
Despite this, he admitted that he has fond memories of the entire experience. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2015, he expressed his love for the collaborative spirit involved in filming. He also took the opportunity to reinforce his stance on a potential movie:
It ended so well, it ended beautifully. And I was more than happy for it to end when it did, because you couldn’t have gone much further.
It was creator and executive producer Peter Berg who initially wanted to continue the show. However, two years after Friday Night Lights ended, he seemed to have definitively given up on the idea, believing it wasn’t a very smart move. No specific reasons were provided for this decision. (via Screen Rant)
Recently, actor Zach Gilford expressed his willingness to consider the possibility of a reunion, which sparked excitement among fans.
How Exactly Did Friday Night Lights End?
Even before the fifth season aired, there were rumors that the series might come to an end. The actors had already been released from their contracts, but it wasn’t until an official statement from NBC and DirecTV in 2010 that the public was made aware of the show’s fate. (via TV Guide)
The episodes for the fifth season were produced solely under contract. The plan was to move forward with a renewal for a sixth season, but the poor ratings ultimately served as a significant factor against it. At least the story was able to reach a conclusion, rather than being abruptly canceled without proper closure.
The show was also off the air for months because of these issues, but NBC still wanted to save it and sought support from DirecTV, striking a deal for a renewal in the third season. Although it happened, the new arrangement came with a budget that was significantly lower than before, which led to the necessity of cutting some characters. (via Deadline)
Marketing campaigns; making full episodes available for free download; reruns on other channels; and even showcasing deleted scenes were all strategies attempted to turn the situation around, but none of them proved effective. (via TIME)
Friday Night Lights is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
