We Hope You're Ready For The Return Of The OG High School Soap Opera: They're Rebooting Degrassi Again
The Nostaglia Generation is absolutely LIVING today.
Now joining the ever-growing list of Things Being Rebooted is none other than Degrassi, the Canadian teen drama about middle and high schoolers dealing with the modern everyday (okay, not TOTALLY everyday) problems that come with teenage life.
This is actually the sixth reboot of the series. The original Degrassi was actually a 1980 show called The Kids of Degrassi Street, and it only aired in Canada, ending in 1986. Degrassi Junior High premiered in 1987 and ended in '89, and Degrassi High picked up where it left off, running from 1989 to 1991. The series was later rebooted as Degrassi: The Next Generation in 2001 and ran for a whopping 14 years, finally coming to a close in 2015.
The show, later rebranded as just Degrassi, was watershed viewing for kids born in the 1990s - everyone talked about it, and even if you didn't watch, you were probably at least peripherally aware of what was going on each week. It's also remembered as the show that launched Drake's career, as he had a prominent role in the first 7 seasons.
There was also Degrassi: Next Class, which premiered on Netflix in 2016 and ran for four seasons. This is the only iteration of the series that HBO did not acquire for streaming in the deal that paved the way for this new reboot, which does not yet have a unique title.
The new showrunners for this new Degrassi are Lara Azzopardi of The Bold Type and Julia Cohen of Riverdale, both creators with plenty of experience writing about teenagers and drama. The pair said in an official statement that they are looking forward to "reviving this beloved franchise is turning it into a truly serialized one-hour drama."
The latest installment of Degrassi is scheduled to be ready for its HBO Max launch sometime in 2023.
