Coach and Tami
Friday Night Lights went off into the sunset, won some Emmys (isn’t that right, Coach Taylor?), and the swan song was hoisted high with happiness. It was the day after the series finale when producer of the series Peter Berg revealed that a big screen continuation was very much in the works, with most of the characters of the television series reprising their roles. While nothing has really come to fruition yet, the Toy Fair is being held in New York this week, so Battleship (the film Berg directed) was right front in center. Of course, Berg was asked about the film, and offered a very positive update regarding the future film. It’s what Taylor Kitsch said that somewhat makes it disheartening.
MTV (via Slashfilm) caught up with the producer, and when asked about the potential film, Berg said “Jason Katims, who was our super talented show-runner, is about done with the script. You never know. So much of these things become scheduling. Kyle [Chandler] is busy, Adrianne [Palicki] is busy, Taylor is busy, Connie Britton is busy, but if we can get everyone in the same room at the same time, we all want to do it. We’re not done with ‘Friday Night Lights.’”
Speaking of Taylor, we know that the soon-to-be major film star has too big blockbusters lined up, including the almost-her John Carter and the starring role in Berg’s Battleship. Interestingly enough at the same event, he said that he’d rather just leave his role as is, and would rather simply appear in a very quick appearance. ”I loved the way I left Riggs. You never know. Maybe a little cameo or something. We’ll see if he even wants me in it.”
But, what will this possible continuation deal with story-speaking? After the way the series ended, it seemed like a fitting end to the show. Berg revealed that “[Katims] has come up with a really great storyline that parallels what happened to Mike Leach, one of my heroes, a coach at Texas Tech who was unjustly fired and unjustly accused of mistreating a player with a concussion, which was proven to not have been the case. He’s now at Washington State getting ready for what I think will be a great redemption story.”
“It would be critical that we get Kyle and Connie [onboard for the film] — we anchored the show around them — and then bring in Riggins, Tyra, Lyla and all other characters as we could get them. But the idea is to really revolve it around the coach.”
So, it appears that the FNL film is swinging for the fences, wanting to bring back Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Taylor Kitsch, Adrianne Palicki, and Minka Kelly. But, what about Aimee Teegarden, Jason Porter, Michael B. Jordan, Jesse Plemons, Gaius Charles, or even Scott Porter? FNL had a long cast listing, and it’ll be extremely interesting to see who, if the film eventually enters production, will spring back up in their past roles if the script and producers want them back.
