HBO Max is reviving the Degrassi franchise with their own Degrassi reboot in 2023, which will likely feature some key differences from the beloved original series. The Degrassi franchise has followed groups of teens at Degrassi high school in Toronto through the ups and downs of young adulthood. Variations on the show have been around since its original conception in 1979 and ran continuously with reboots and spinoffs until Netflix's version, Degrassi: Next Class, ended in 2017. However, this iteration promises to deliver yet another take on the central concept.
HBO announced the reboot with partner Wildbrain to come sometime in 2023 after filming ends this year. The show promises to artfully capture life in high school while staying true to the traditional Degrassi authenticity. Like its show predecessors, Degrassi will also follow a group of teens in Toronto on their journey into adulthood. In addition to greenlighting their own version of the show, HBO also acquired the streaming rights to Degrassi: The Next Generation, the longest-running show in the franchise history at 14 seasons.
One major difference the creators want to implement with the new reboot of Degrassi is to make it traditionally serialized. Previous versions of the show have been closer to a procedural story than a true serialized show, meaning each episode had little effect on the next. While overarching character arcs and storylines were pulled through entire seasons, the day-to-day shenanigans of the characters held little weight. Degrassi: The Next Generation began experimenting with more serialized versions of the show in later seasons, but HBO Max imagines the show to be completely serialized with more complex and interconnecting storylines according to the show's logline.
Additionally, they're moving to an hour-long format usually reserved for more serious dramas than the show's more familiar half-hour format of previous runs. This switch better matches the tone of other HBO Max streaming greats like Zendaya's Euphoria. Also, this push towards a more dramatic format seems to better fit the direction the show wants to go. Degrassi's logline suggests more introspective and dramatic stories than the fun stories of Degrassi's past. The marketing seems to align with this new emotional mood, as their teaser picture features a more serious font and background pictures than the cartoony versions common in the show's past.
These new changes can be attributed both to HBO Max's creative team as well as the new showrunners on the project, Lara Azzopardi from The Bold Type and Julia Cohen from Riverdale, which returns to season 6 in March. Two of the original creators of Degrassi, Linda Schuyler and Stephen Stohn, have expressed their excitement in seeing the two succeed in continuing the show. Both Lara and Julia wrote for Degrassi in the past, so they should be able to add the familiarity of old Degrassi in with the new style of the reboot. Regardless, it seems like the show promises to be some of what viewers know and love about Degrassi brought into a modern age of dramatic television.