Friday Night Lights is unquestionably one of the best television shows to grace the screen in at least the last decade, maybe even ever. The storytelling and character development was on a completely different level and the actors brought it every single week. Fans of the show are rightfully passionate, and so when news came that executive producer/director/creator Peter Berg was plotting a feature film that would continue the story of the characters after the series finale, interest was certainly piqued. Berg recently revealed that executive producer/showrunner Jason Katims is about done with the script and the story is said to revolve around Kyle Chandlerâs Coach Taylor.
Steve recently sat down with Taylor Kitsch in anticipation of the upcoming sci-fi/adventure pic John Carter, and the actor gave his two-cents on what he thinks about the Friday Night Lights movie and how feels about reprising the character after such a phenomenal series finale. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.
When asked how he feels about continuing the story of Tim Riggins in a Friday Night Lights feature film, Kitsch appears to have mixed feelings:
âI mean I love the way I left it, and Pete knows that. Weâre arguably best friends so thereâs no filter with Berg and I. I havenât read the script. I trust him immensely, obviously doing Battleship with him as well. If the script is really great and itâs this small cameo and he asks me to come in, I donât know. I donât know. I might say yes, I might just say, âLetâs keep Riggs in Dillon and hopefully you run into the guy at a beer story or something,' let it work that way, of making [the viewers] work. Thatâs the beauty of FNL, we made you work as a viewer of where Riggs is, whereâs Tyra, where that relationshipâs going, Coach and all that.â
The actor said that heâs aware the story will revolve around Coach Taylor, so heâs not sure if itâs worth it to pop up for just a small part:
âI know itâs more centered around the coach and his relationship, like the show was, so Iâm guessing if Iâm even in the script it would be quite minute. I donât know if thatâs worth it or not yet.â
It sounds like it all comes down to how the script turns out, but I wouldnât blame Kitsch for wanting to leave the character the way he left him in the series finale. Katims and Berg crafted a beautiful end to a truly special series, and the apprehension of sullying or changing that is certainly understandable. That said, given how brilliant Katims and Berg ran the show for four years (season two has some redeemable qualities), I canât imagine theyâll churn out a subpar script.
Furthermore, the production timetable of a Friday Night Lights movie may be quite a ways off. In his most recent update, Berg admitted that a great deal of difficultly comes with getting everyone back together. Kitsch, Chandler, Connie Britton, and Adrianne Palicki have very busy careers at the moment, and Katims is currently running NBCâs Parenthood and prepping for a new show with Jason Ritter, not to mention Bergâs directing slate. Hopefully weâll know more once Katims finishes the script, but it might be awhile before everyoneâs schedules line up. You can watch the portion of Steve's interview with Kitsch concerning the Friday Night Lights movie below, and be sure to look out for the full interview later this week leading up to the release of John Carter on Friday.