One Tree Hill’s original cast was brought to stardom when they were featured in this iconic photoshoot. Photo courtesy of People.

SAMANTHA RITTENBERG | STAFF REPORTER | srittenberg@butler.edu 

Low-waisted jeans, Raven’s jerseys and Gavin DeGraw’s “I Don’t Want to Be” song all lead people to think of the show “One Tree Hill”.

“One Tree Hill” premiered on The CW on Sept. 23, 2003. The show revolves around half-brothers Lucas and Nathan Scott and their lives in Tree Hill, North Carolina. Lucas and Nathan start the show despising each other but soon learn they need each other in their lives. Along with the brothers, the core group of friends includes three girls: Brooke Davis, Peyton Sawyer and Haley James. For nine seasons, fans watched the group go through everything from love to loss. 

“One Tree Hill” was a top-rated show in the early 2000s and still is today, thanks to Hulu bringing the show back into the spotlight. Its popularity persists partly because of its realism, which few teen dramas had at the time. Unlike “The OC”, where the characters partied on yachts and clubbed in Los Angeles, the characters on “One Tree Hill” played basketball and hung out at a local music joint. 

Katie Beyl, a senior youth and community development major, expressed her immediate obsession with the show. 

“I started watching ‘One Tree Hill’ after one of my best friends from home posted something about it,” Beyl said. “I had it on my phone, started watching it and binged it like crazy. And then, I became addicted; it’s probably my favorite show of all time.” 

The reboot stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton as moms of teenagers, picking up 20 years after the original show ended. Only Bush and Burton have been confirmed for the reboot so far, but more character favorites may be added as development progresses.

Chad Michael Murray does not have plans to return to the show. This comes as a surprise after Murray’s interview with E! in Dec. 2023. 

“Something will happen,” Murray said. “Whether we get everybody together and do a live reading of the show, or we create a new fictional future episode.”

Mark Schwahn created the original show, but he will not have anything to do with the reboot due to allegations of sexual assault from several female actors. Danneel Ackles, who played Rachel Gatina — Brooke’s frenemy — will be a producer along with Bush and Burton.

The reboot is not the first time cast members from the show have gotten together. Bush, Burton and Lenz have an entire podcast dedicated to the show titled “Drama Queens.” Each week, they unpack one episode from the series in chronological order. Sometimes, they have cast members join them for more insight on the episode, and sometimes, it’s just the girls. The podcast started in 2021 and has now expanded to bring on guests who did not even appear in the show.

Senior sports media major Gaby Whisler has hope that the reboot will be well done.

“I hope it will be good, especially because Hillary Burton and Sophia Bush have so much love for it,” Whisler says. “So I’m really hoping, with them being on board with it, they’ll be able to create something magical and draw in original ‘One Tree Hill’ fans.”

Reboots can be very controversial. While some people become ecstatic when they see their favorite show from years ago being brought back, others become hesitant. Reboots are not a new phenomenon, but their popularity has skyrocketed in recent years. In the past decade, shows such as “Gilmore Girls”, “Gossip Girl” and “iCarly” have been made into reboots, with more shows to come in the future.

Reagan Craig, a sophomore psychology and criminology double major, discusses the positive and negative aspects of reboots.

“Reboots make me a little bit nervous because I feel like when a good show ends, you imagine the future of it yourself, and they can ruin that sometimes [and it can] be disappointing,” Craig said. “But I do think it’s exciting though, to see if the writer’s storyline for [the character’s] futures is better than the one that I thought of.”

Some fans say the show can not go on without all the original cast members, but plenty of shows including Sex and the City, Fuller House and Roseanne have made successful reboots without key characters.

With or without the entire original cast, fans will be viewing the reboot ready for anything. They will keep an eye out for the same type of relatable storylines from the original but with a new spark this time.

The release date has not yet been announced but once it is, it will be one for the books.