Get ready to travel back in time to the Forman basement, because the official teaser trailer for Netflix’s That ’90s Show is finally here! Set approximately 15 years after the events of That ’70s Show, the sitcom is stacked with both new and familiar faces.
The series revolves around Eric and Donna’s teenage daughter, Leia Forman (played by Callie Haverda), as she spends the summer at her grandparents’ house in Point Place, Wisconsin. While there, she meets their next-door neighbor Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide) and becomes part of a tight-knit friend group. Each season will take place during summer.
The show will focus on the new group of kids, but several OG characters from That ’70s Show will make guest appearances, including Eric (Topher Grace), Donna (Laura Prepon), Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), and Jackie (Mila Kunis).
In addition to Eric and Donna, one other original couple will be together: Kelso and Jackie (whose actors are married in real life!). “My husband and I are together in it, which is weird because we shouldn’t have been,” Mila Kunis said in an interview with Access Hollywood. “I called BS. I was like, ‘My character would be with Fez…’ Now [Kelso and I] are married with a kid, and I was like, ‘I don’t know about this.'”
That ’90s Show is full of connections to the original show behind the scenes as well. The creators of That ’70s Show, Bonnie and Terry Turner, co-created That ’90s Show along with their daughter, Lindsay, and Gregg Mettler (who wrote for That ’70s Show). Additionally, Kurtwood Smith (who plays Red) and Debra Jo Rupp (who plays Kitty) are executive producers. Laura Prepon also directed several episodes.
Originally, That ’90s Show was pitched with a very different premise. Terry Turner revealed in an interview with Variety: “Our first pass what that Eric had at some point gone to a rock festival and hooked up with someone, leading to an unknown grandchild. And at the doorway shows up a 14- or 15-year-old kid who says he’s Red and Kitty’s grandkid.”
Ultimately, Netflix decided that wasn’t quite right, so everyone went back to the drawing board. And thus, the idea of Leia Forman was born.
“I wanted [it] to have the same feeling as That ’70s Show did,” Mettler told Variety. “The show had a very special tone. It was playful, it had a heart, it was sarcastic, it was filled with love within this family, within the friend group. I missed being in the basement with those kids.”
