'Glee' reboot: Everything we know about who's back and the Lea Michele drama

Lea Michele is reportedly reprising Rachel Berry, but not every former castmate is rushing back to McKinley High.

It’s more of a revival than a reboot..

Glee is coming back.

Disney+ and Hulu have confirmed that Ryan Murphy’s musical comedy is getting a revival, more than a decade after McKinley High’s New Directions sang their way off screens for good in 2015. “It’s official. Glee is returning,” the two streamers wrote in a joint Instagram post, with no further details on plot, cast or a premiere date given.

The original six seasons are already streaming on Disney+ in Australia, so local Gleeks can get their refresher in before any new episodes land.

For anyone who missed it the first time around: Glee followed a scrappy high school glee club, the New Directions, at the fictional William McKinley High in Lima, Ohio, as they sang and sparred their way to respect. It premiered on Fox in 2009 and ran six seasons to 2015, turning pop covers into real chart hits and winning two Golden Globes for best television series, comedy or musical.

It was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, the trio now reuniting to write the revival, and it launched the careers of Lea Michele, Darren Criss, Chris Colfer, Amber Riley, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison, among many others.

Who’s confirmed

Lea Michele is the only name formally attached so far, with Variety reporting she is set to reprise Rachel Berry. “She’s in,” one source told the outlet. “It’s still early-ish days, but it feels good and we’re happy to get the band back together,” said another.

Since Glee, Michele has starred in Scream Queens and The Mayor, and built a serious Broadway resume, including a widely praised run as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl and, most recently, as Florence Vassy in the revival of Chess.

Who’s likely

Murphy told Entertainment Tonight in September that he had finished a reboot script alongside Falchuk and Brennan. “I’ve been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members,” he said, adding that they’d had plenty of questions but were enthusiastic about the project.

Two of them have all but confirmed it themselves. Heather Morris, who played Brittany S Pierce, posted that her character “is alive and well... and back for more Glee,” while Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans, posted on X, “Reunited and it feels so good!”

Since Glee, Morris competed on Dancing with the Stars and has focused on raising her two kids, while Overstreet has built a second career as a singer-songwriter, releasing his debut single “Hold On” in 2016.

Chris Colfer, who played Kurt Hummel, hasn’t confirmed anything but has softened on the idea in recent years. Since Glee, he’s become a New York Times bestselling author, with his Land of Stories series for young readers running to six books and millions of copies sold. He’s previously joked he’d only say no to a reboot at his own peril.

There was a time where Glee was actually good.

Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz, who played Artie and Tina, are arguably the most invested former cast members in the show’s legacy: the pair co-host And That’s What You REALLY Missed, a podcast spent rewatching all six seasons with cast and crew guests. Amber Riley, who played Mercedes, hasn’t confirmed anything either, but has said the original cast still share a group text and often talk about reuniting for a project.

Who’s not (yet) confirmed

Becca Tobin, who joined in season four as Kitty Wilde, had a more anxious reaction to the news. “This gives me diarrhea,” she said on her LadyGang podcast, explaining she wasn’t an original cast member, joined three seasons in, and has no guarantee of a callback, or a call at all.

Three members of the original cast won’t be returning at all. Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera and Mark Salling all died in the years since Glee ended, between 2013 and 2020.

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The elephant in the choir room

Michele’s return is the headline, but it also reopens one of the messiest chapters in Glee‘s history, and one her returning castmates haven’t forgotten.

In June 2020, Michele posted a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of George Floyd, writing that his death “was not an isolated incident and it must end.” Former co-star Samantha Ware, who played student Jane Hayward in Glee‘s sixth and final season, responded within hours, accusing Michele of making her “first television gig a living hell” and alleging a pattern of microaggressions that made her question a career in Hollywood. Ware has since deleted her X but her tweet, posted in all caps, is pictured below.

Ouch!

Other castmates weighed in. Heather Morris later confirmed the stories about Michele’s behaviour were true, saying at the time it felt “very hush-hush” on set and that Naya Rivera was the only cast member who was honest about it publicly. Rivera, who died later that year, had already written in her 2016 memoir, Sorry Not Sorry, that Michele stopped speaking to her entirely during the show’s final season.

Amber Riley posted in support of Ware at the time but later said she didn’t want the controversy to define her, telling Entertainment Tonight that Michele had reached out to her personally and “that’s where it ends for me.”

The fallout was immediate. Meal-kit company HelloFresh dropped Michele as a paid partner within days, and she issued an apology on Instagram, writing in part that “I have clearly acted in ways that hurt other people.”

Michele’s comeback came on Broadway, first with her acclaimed Funny Girl run and then in Chess, where she played opposite Aaron Tveit in a production co-written by Danny Strong. Despite the buzz, Michele missed out on a Tony nomination when the 2026 nominees were announced in May, and the production confirmed she missed several performances that week due to illness, before returning days later, cleared by her doctor.

Gleeks: a decade is a long time, and grudges rarely survive a pay cheque this size. Whether Lea Michele has actually done the work since 2020, or the cast are simply putting years of side-eye aside for one more trip to McKinley, is the real question. I’ll be watching either way. Will you?

Disney+ and Hulu are yet to confirm a premiere date, plot details or any further casting.