Looks like this latest attempt to reboot a beloved ’90s classic is…Audi. Even Peacock — home of such resurrected IPs as Saved By the Bell and Punky Brewster — didn’t want to touch the Clueless reboot, which would have reimagined the 1995 romantic-comedy as a mystery series.
The Clueless mystery reboot has been passed over by the NBCUniversal streamer, which is already planning a new take on the 1995 movie starring Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy, and Paul Rudd. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Peacock has passed on the mystery series version 9 months after picking up the project, which was penned by Jordan Reddout and Gus Hickey (Will & Grace, Man With a Plan). But the streamer still hopes to redevelop Clueless as a “different update.”
Initially sold to the streamer in August, this initial Clueless reboot was described as “‘a baby pink and bisexual blue-tinted, tiny sunglasses-wearing, oat milk latte and Adderall-fueled look at what happens when queen bee Cher disappears and her lifelong No. 2 Dionne steps into Cher’s vacant Air Jordans. How does Dionne deal with the pressures of being the new most popular girl in school, while also unraveling the mystery of what happened to her best friend?”
It sounds like another attempt to go the Riverdale route, which took the all-American Archie Comics characters and dropped them in the middle of a wannabe Twin Peaks series. But it feels like whoever is behind this original Clueless mystery reboot forgets that the 1995 film directed by Amy Heckerling was already a semi-satirical take on ’90s teen consumerism, and a loose adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma to boot. The original was a smart, funny, and likable classic already, and pasting on a murder-mystery concept would’ve just been too much. And Clueless without Alicia Silverstone’s popular-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold Cher? As if!
Apparently Peacock saw that too, and wisely axed the idea. But they seem to be intent still on reviving Clueless in some capacity, which we’ve seen fail before. A Clueless sitcom starring Rachel Blanchard taking over as Cher but with Dash continuing her role as Dionne aired for three middling seasons on ABC and UPN. It’s really hard to imagine any reboot being as good without Silverstone, the late Murphy, and Rudd’s charms.
Reddout and Hickey executive produced the axed Clueless reboot alongside Corinne Brinkerhoff (Jane the Virgin), Tiffany Grant, film producers Robert Lawrence and Eli Bush. THR says it’s unclear if any of the team will be involved in future Clueless reboot attempts.
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