Some of the Bones creative team reunited this weekend, but it wasn’t for a gross skeleton gag. Instead, members of the crew reunited to support the WGA writer’s strike that’s made headlines in recent weeks. At the picket event, the creator of the series Hart Hanson said those who worked on the show are “in contact” with one another. Yet, would he ever revive the beloved Fox series?
Previously, back in 2017 as the show was ending, Hanson actually spoke to Deadline about how in a “couple years or something, it might be a lot of fun” to get the band back together. It’s been more than a couple of years since the show ended at this point, but the dream doesn’t seem 100% dead. According to Hanson, “it’s complicated,” but the creative team is “nostalgic” about the series. The longtime showrunner spoke to Variety about why it isn’t as easy as just picking up the phone and asking for people’s “availability” though, noting:
It’s complicated now because Fox broadcast Bones, but Disney now bought 20th, so they own [the show]. It would take a million agents and lawyers to figure out who owns what and what platform it would show on. But we do keep talking. And every once in a while, we are all nostalgic enough to think, ‘Maybe we should do it again.’ Who knows? Maybe this will bump-start us.
Listen, clearly figuring out this whole rights thing is complicated. The Disney and 20th Century Fox merger has been complete for a few years now, but it sounds like the provenance of old shows is a giant legal hassle that might make certain revival efforts more trouble than they are worth. Even without that, there’s a whole question about where content should be housed. Some Fox shows, like The Simpsons are randomly found on Disney+ streaming, while others like Masterchef are on Hulu. Some FX shows are on FX first and some are Hulu originals, like The Bear, now.
Then you have David Boreanaz, who is very busy with a full time TV gig, as Seal Team was renewed for Season 7 on Paramount Plus fairly recently. He’s in the past also said he likes to “look forward” and not “backwards” when asked about a Bones reunion, making him committing possibly the diciest bit of this plan. Emily Deschanel, on the other hand, also seems to have slowed down her acting output, only taking work in podcasts, guest stints, and miniseries work in recent years, so I’m not sure how excited she’d be about the TV grind. And as much as I love Michaela Conlin, T.J. Thyne and Tamara Taylor, you can’t have Bones without Booth and Brennan.
But is this really a pipe dream? Here’s what I think should happen.
Yes, Bones should have a reunion at some point. Instead of going back to network TV, the show should do a streaming reunion and it should go more in the vein of Zoey 102 in that the reunion would be longer form. What I suggest is going in the vein of a Hallmark Movies and Mysteries series and signing the cast back on for 3 “episodes” or “movies” that are all like an hour and a half instead of 42 minutes. These could be parceled out ala Hallmark over a period of weeks or they could drop all at once.
This would feel like a TV event in the same way that Sherlock always felt like a big TV event and it would give everyone a chance to work together in a meaningful way for meaningful storylines without marking crazy work weeks – which is one of the things the Bones creative team was protesting this week anyway.
Obviously this wouldn’t solve any of the actual “Who owns Bones?” rights issues (or Boreanaz’s possible lack of enthusiasm) but it would solve some of the time stuff. Given Hart Hanson also called Bones “a happy place to work” – a somewhat rare phenomenon – I’d hope it would be easy to get people back on board. So perhaps we will be hearing about a revival sometime soon, no matter what format it might come in? One thing’s for certain: we’ll have to wait for the writer’s strike to end first.
