Clueless again?

The 1995 film Clueless is many things—a beloved teen comedy, the locus classicus for indispensable expressions like “As if!” and one of the all-time best Jane Austen adaptations. What it isn’t is a zombie movie.

And yet you could be forgiven for thinking it must be, given how often it seems to return from the grave in ever-new forms. It’s been a TV show, a jukebox musical, an original musical, the inspiration for a Super Bowl ad, and the template for many a TikTok. And now, apparently, a TV show again.

Or so we learned earlier this year, when Deadline reported that the Peacock streaming service was developing a new small-screen Clueless, with the movie’s star, Alicia Silverstone, reprising the leading role of Cher.

Given that Silverstone, although indubitably lovely and accomplished, is now forty-eight, the new Clueless presumably departs from the original, which updated Austen’s Emma to high school in Beverly Hills. But the coverage offers no details on how the creative team—said to include Amy Heckerling, the creator of the original Clueless--envisions the reboot.

Before you slip off your shoes and put the popcorn in the microwave, however, a word of caution: This isn’t the first time Peacock has considered a Clueless TV reboot. In 2019, news broke that a new version was in the works; two years later, the project died on the vine.

The same thing could happen again, although signs are more promising this time around: for one thing, Silverstone was committed enough to share the news (“Totally buggin’… in the best way”) with her 2.8 million Instagram followers.  

Would a new TV Clueless be a good thing? Hard to say: the track record for undead Clueless is decidedly mixed. The 1995 original is immortal; the 1996-9 TV version, which I never saw, was reportedly . . . less immortal. The 2019 jukebox musical was flat; the 2024 original musical got mixed reviews. The 2023 Super Bowl ad was nostalgic fun; the 2021 TikToks were cute enough but, you know, short on plot and character development.

Still, I’m staking my claim now. If the new Clueless comes off, I’ll be calling it the Peacock edition.