Boy Meets World spinoff Girl Meets World has found its main character Riley, but uncles Shawn Hunter and Eric Matthews may or may not be part of Riley’s life.
Executive producer Michael Jacobs dished on everything from what the new show will be about to who could guest star, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“Girl Meets World can be told on two levels: the coming of age of Riley Matthews and two parents who haven’t quite come of age themselves,” Jacobs told THR.
Jacobs, the creator of the ’90s “TGIF” sitcom, is back for Girl Meets World – as are Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel (Cory and Topanga). In the new spinoff, the high school sweethearts will have a 13-year-old daughter named Riley, who will be the main focus of the show.
Riley won’t be played by a 13-year-old, however. Rowan Blanchard, 11, has been cast as the newest Matthews offspring because “We were doing a coming-of-age story and you can’t cast somebody who has already come of age,” Jacobs explained. “The cost of coming of age has gotten a little younger. I remembered Rowan and how I felt about her when she first came in. I felt like it was Cory Matthews walking into the room.”
But that doesn’t mean Girl Meets World will be a repeat of BMW.
“If we do a redo of the original series, that’s no good. Nobody wants that,” he said. “The world [my kids are] growing up in is a far tougher world; it’s not the same world Cory Matthews met. I certainly don’t know that it’s as kid-friendly. It’s far more complex than it used to be because of their immediate access technologically, about things they should and shouldn’t. The thing that keeps me up is will I actually be able to communicate to a vast audience the joy of growing up with a bit more innocent confusion and a bit less wanting to run off the cliff and becoming much too old much too fast? If I can do that, then this is a real contribution.”
Instead, GMW will focus on the coming-of-age story of both Riley and her parents.
“What I’m hoping is that the freshness of this will be a girl at her absolute cusp of being able to be influenced by these surrounding forces,” the producer said. “Cory, who has been nothing but confused all his life, will try to impress upon his daughter that he knows what he’s doing now and she will see right through that. That’s going to be one of the primary relationships within the show. Topanga’s observation and realization that neither of them know truly what they’re doing and it’s not an easy world to raise a child in is what makes this show great for right now.”
Although Rider Strong (Shawn Hunter) has said he has “no official involvement” with the new show, Jacobs has spoken to both Strong and Will Friedle (Eric Matthews) and is leaving the door open for more familiar faces to make appearances.
“Whoever wants to be part of this show will be and whoever wants to move on will. The most important thing is to see what the show is and then see what their part in it will be. Will Friedle said, ‘I will be at every taping.’ Everybody is quite attached to it. The bottom line is: Will Rider or Will be a cast member? Will they put in appearances? Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.”
Read the full interview at THR.
Girl Meets World is set to shoot its pilot in the coming weeks. No word yet on when the show will air, but the Disney Channel has already ordered a full season.
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