Ashton Kutcher says his wife and former co-star Mila Kunis refused to let him turn down That ‘70s show’s spinoff series, That ‘90s Show.
The new Netflix series, which premiered last month, was co-developed by That ’70s Show creators Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner and Mark Brazill, and Lindsey Turner.
It is set in Wisconsin and follows Leia Forman, the teenage daughter of That ‘70s Show characters Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon).
Kutcher, 44, told Esquire that when the pitch first came in for the duo to reprise their respective roles as Kelso and Jackie, Kunis told him: “You know, we owe our entire careers to this show. It doesn’t matter what the script is, we’re doing it.”
Kutcher and Kunis’s characters are married in That ’90s Show.
In a 2022 interview with Access Hollywood, Kunis revealed that she disagreed with the showrunners’ decision to have them end up together.
“My husband and I are together in [the new show], which is weird because we shouldn’t have been,” she said.
“You know what, I called BS I was like, ‘My character would be with Fez.’ I think that I ended up with Wilmer [Valderrama]’s character. And I was like [to Ashton], ‘Why are you and I together?’ And also, he was married when ‘70s ended to Shannon Elizabeth’s character, I think.”
That ’70s Show originally aired on Fox between 1998 and 2006. The series experienced a resurgence in popularity in the 2010s after it was made available to stream in its entirety on Netflix.
That ’90s Show has received mixed reviews from critics, earning an approval rating of 74 per cent on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.
In a three-star review for The Independent, Nick Hilton wrote: “That ’90s Show is milder than a Milwaukee cheddar, built to be watched while scrolling on your phone, but from the moment Leia takes her father’s place, yelling out ‘Hello Wisconsin!’ in the opening titles, the lure of generations past might just drag you in.”
