Original Wonder Years Cast Returns to ABC in Celebration of the Reboot’s Premiere

The original cast of The Wonder Years will invade ABC on other shows this fall in celebration of the reboot series premiering in September. Serving as a reimagining of the original show, the new incarnation is set to premiere on ABC on Sept. 22. Weeks later, on the evening of Oct. 3, original series stars Fred Savage, Danica McKellar, and Dan Lauria will all appear on The Conners, Home Economics, and The Goldbergs, respectively.

Elisha “E.J.” Williams stars in The Wonder Years reboot as Dean Williams, the central character who serves a similar role to Savage’s Kevin Arnold in the original series. Also starring as his family members are Dulé Hill as father Bill, Saycon Sengbloh as mother Lillian, Laura Kariuki as sister Kim, and Julian Lerner as brother Brad. Don Cheadle is also featured as the show’s narrator and the voice of adult Dean}. You can watch a new trailer for the show below.

“Being able to look back at that time and learn about it and then reenact it-I’m not gonna lie, I cried,” Williams said during a TCA panel on Thursday. “Dean’s perspective and me learning were two different situations. For me, it was hard to process even though I’ve already learned about the era but when you’re deep into a situation you think of things you’d never have thought of before like the death of Dr. King.”

Hill added: “What sticks out to me is, as much as things have changed they’ve stayed the same. As tragic as Dr. King’s passing there’s still so much tragedy that’s gone on between now and then that’s still happening right now. That’s what’s been interesting to me about exploring this time period: if you see the trauma and you see the hurt, you also see the strength of the people from that time and you reflect on where we are now and you see that same strength, that same power, and the same fortitude to press forward that has always been there for people who look like me.”

Fred Savage directed the premiere of The Wonder Years reboot and serves as executive producer. Also executive producing are creator Saladin K. Patterson, Lee Daniels, and Marc Velez. The series is inspired by the original version of The Wonder Years by Neal Marlens and Carol Black.

It was also revealed at the panel that Allen Maldonado has joined the cast of the new series in the role of Coach Long, an “affable guy who takes his job coaching a pre-teen baseball team very seriously.” The character’s son Tony plays on his team along with Williams’ Dean, and Patterson spoke about Maldonado’s casting.

“What I’ll say about casting is that we really wanted to represent the diaspora of Blackness for sure,” Patterson said. “And some of that is in appearance and looks but some of it is just in the background and those individual stories that come from those mixes of cultures. He certainly fits into that tableau that we want to set. What was most important in the casting of Allen is that he’s a fantastic comedic actor who can also handle the grounded moments and the gravitas that we need as well.”

The Wonder Years reboot will premiere on ABC on Sept. 22 at 8:30 p.m. EDT. Fans of the original can then look forward to seeing the previous show’s actors guest starring on The Conners, Home Economics, and The Goldbergs on Oct. 13. This news comes to us from Deadline.

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