Bones Creator Teases Potential Revival: ‘I Could See It’

Could Bones be the next TV series to get a revival? That’s a fair question, given how so many other popular TV shows from years past have been getting reboots and revivals. Bones was a very successful show, spanning for 12 seasons on Fox from 2005 to 2017. Six years later, some fans may be wondering what the characters from Bones are up to these days, so to find out an answer, Variety directly asked series creator Hart Hanson about the possibility.

“We are in contact with each other,” Hanson says, teasing that it’s possible considering how well the Bones team stays in touch. “Everybody on Bones is in contact with each other. At separate times, it’s like, ‘What are you doing? What’s the availability?’”

That sounds a bit promising, but Hanson also warns that reviving Bones isn’t quite as simple as just getting everyone’s schedules lined up. The rights to Bones have gotten a bit tangled up since the show ended its run on Fox in 2017, and to revive the series at this point, it would take some time to hire lawyers and do some legal wrangling. That’s not to say that a reboot is impossible, but it could be a bit challenging to pull off.

“It’s complicated now because Fox broadcast Bones, but Disney now bought 20th, so they own [the show],” as Hanson explains. “It would take a million agents and lawyers to figure out who owns what and what platform it would show on… But we do keep talking. And every once in a while, we are all nostalgic enough to think, ‘Maybe we should do it again.’ Who knows? Maybe this will bump-start us.”

Related: Bones: Where the Cast is Today

Bones Might Get a Revival… on One Condition

Even with the legal complications, Hanson can picture a Bones revival. However, he says it should only be done on the one condition that both series leads, Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, return to reprise their roles. With that said, Hanson teases that Deschanel and Boreanaz are open to a revival, as long as the story feels right.

“I could see it. I could see it. Of course, it all depends on David and Emily. Without both of them, no,” Hanson notes. “We have heard that they would not not be game, which is a step. The actors are going to say the truth, which is it depends on what it is, the scripts, what it looks like, if it feels right. They’re not going to do something just because it’s us.”

At that point, executive producer Stephen Nathan added, ‘“But we don’t have to do it for 12 years again, do we?”

Bones followed FBI agents Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (Boreanaz) as they solved crimes by analyzing bones and other human remains that had been left behind. The series also starred Michaela Conlin, Eric Millegan, T. J. Thyne, Jonathan Adams, Tamara Taylor, John Francis Daley, and John Boyd.

You can find Bones streaming on the free streaming platform FreeVee. It is also available to watch on Hulu.