Kevin McHale, who played Artie in Glee, says he would only star in a reboot of the series if he could play a different character. Glee first premiered in 2009, and ran for a total of 121 episodes and 6 seasons, before it concluded in 2015. Though the show was massively popular during its first 3 seasons, later seasons saw a sharp decline in viewership, in part due to the death of actor Cory Monteith in 2013. Glee starred a motley crew of high schoolers who, despite being outcasts in many ways, found community within their school's glee club. McHale portrayed Artie Abrams, a paraplegic teen who uses a wheelchair, though McHale himself is not disabled. Though some audiences at the time applauded Glee for including a disabled character in their main cast, there has been more and more backlash against the series for not casting a disabled actor in the role.
In an interview with Insider, McHale very firmly says that he will never play Artie again. McHale says that even if the coming years do see a reboot of Glee, that he wouldn't play the same character, but would be open to playing a different one - so long as that character is not in a wheelchair. McHale goes on to explain that he doesn't think he should be playing a disabled character and that he "didn't know better" at the time when he played Artie. Read McHale's full comment below:
"I don't know if Artie could be in it. Knowing what we know now, I don't think I should be playing a character that's in a wheelchair. So, if they let me grow out of my beard and play a different character, I'll do it."
Will There Be a Glee Reboot?
On his podcast Showmance with fellow Glee co-star Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina Cohen-Chang), McHale has gone on to say that he would rightly never be cast as Artie if the show were made today. He reflects on his casting now, saying he "barely made that cut because we didn't know any better. What were we thinking? I can't play that part." However, despite McHale's insistence that he would never return to the character again, he isn't opposed to joining more Glee projects in the future - particularly a potential reboot of the series, provided that creator Ryan Murphy was involved.
Murphy has recently addressed the idea of rebooting Glee, saying that there's been enough time since the show ended to bring the franchise back to life, whether that be in a new television series, a Broadway musical, or something entirely different. Though Murphy expressed great sentimentality and fondness for his series, he also acknowledged that the show has aged poorly in many ways, and said he was willing to speak to McHale and Ushkowitz on their podcast at a later point to discuss all of those issues. However, even the most die-hard Glee fans are not necessarily holding out for a reboot, as many viewers thought the show already ran for too long, saying that the series should have ended after season 3 - or, more specifically, after Cory Monteith's death.
While Glee has become something of an internet joke recently for how poorly some parts have aged, that isn't to say the entire series was without merit. If nothing else, Glee was a massive cultural phenomenon, for all of its hope, heartbreak, awkwardness, and cringe alike. An up-to-date reboot could mean repairing Glee's aged reputation. However, with many previous Glee stars having tragically passed away since the series began, and other cast having bad blood between them, it seems unlikely that many original cast members would return to a new adaptation, and those that are willing to return, like McHale, might not want to play their old Glee characters again.
Source: Insider