It may be on the same network and have the same title, but don’t call 2021’s The Wonder Years a reboot.
The stars of the new coming-of-age comedy made sure to make this very point during an exclusive chat with E! News ahead of the Sept. 22 premiere. In fact, Elisha “EJ” Williams, who is stepping into Fred Savage‘s shoes by taking on the lead role, said the show isn’t “categorized as a reboot.”
“We’re just another regular show,” he added, “who’s trying to be just as great, and it just so happens to be another version of another one.”
The Wonder Years could certainly be defined as a reimagining, as the ABC show is telling new stories from the perspective of a Black family living in Alabama in the late 1960s. Williams’ co-star and on-screen mom Saycon Sengbloh put it best when she told E! News, “We’re just absolutely a different family, but it’s that same slice of time. I think of it like this, if you imagine a neighborhood…that show was about what was going on in that house. And now we’re just over here at this house.”