Minka Kelly On Whether She Might Reprise Her ‘Friday Night Lights’ Role In Peacock’s Reboot: “I Think It’s Best Leaving People Wanting More”
Friday Night Lights star Minka Kelly does not have plans to participate in Peacock’s reboot of the famous football series.
Deadline first reported the streamer landing the reboot in December. In the original show, Kelly starred as Lyla Garrity, head cheerleader for the Panthers football team. While discussing her upcoming Netflix series Ransom Canyon, in which she stars alongside Josh Duhamel, Kelly seemed to indicate an unlikely return to Dillon, Texas, to reprise her role.
“I think it’s always best leaving people — if even they do — wanting more. I think leaving that where it was is probably the right thing to do,” Kelly told Deadline. “Maybe too much sometimes is too much. I don’t know that they need more Lyla.”
The actress also said she sees a lot of her Ransom Canyon character in her former Friday Night Lights role.
“I think Quinn is maybe Lyla 20 years later, a little bit more grown up,” she added. “So I’m just gonna focus on Quinn for now.”
Kelly starred in Friday Night Lights from 2006, when the show premiered, until 2009. Her character Lyla began as the head cheerleader and girlfriend to star football player Jason Street (Scott Porter), until Jason was paralyzed in the series premiere from a gnarly block during a game. From there, Lyla has a bit of an existential crisis, which eventually leads her to Taylor Kitsch’s Tim Riggins before she leaves Dillon to go to college. In the original series, that’s the last viewers really ever see of Lyla, since she never moves back to her hometown.
Ransom Canyon, the Western drama series that Kelly and Duhamel lead, arrives on the Netflix April 17. Based on the book by Jodi Thomas, the show follows stubborn rancher Staten Kirland (Duhamel) as he struggles with loss as well as managing his acres of land.
Quinn O’Grady (Kelly) provides an answer to his lonesomeness as more than just the longtime family friend she has been. Three major ranch families’ stories braid together in Ransom Canyon along with several other subplots such as one between Lizzy Greene’s head cheerleader and Garrett Wareing’s Lucas Russell.
Davis (Eoin Macken) provides a major rival to Staten both in land and in love. The ten-episode installment arriving Thursday also stars James Brolin, Marianly Tejada, Jack Schumacher, Andrew Liner and recurring cast includes Brett Cullen, Kate Burton, Jaren Robledo, Jennifer Ens, Kenneth Miller Niko Guardado, Justin Johnson Cortez, Casey W. Johnson and Philip Winchester.
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