Lea Michele is going back to McKinley High. The actress will return as Rachel Berry in the Glee reboot coming to Disney+ and Hulu, Variety reported on Wednesday, citing multiple sources. The report came the same day the two streamers ordered the series.
“She’s in,” one source told the trade. Another said, “It’s still early-ish days, but it feels good and we’re happy to get the band back together.” Representatives for Michele and series creator Ryan Murphy did not comment.
Deadline, which also reported the news, described Michele as in talks to reprise the role.
Rachel Berry Is Back
For six seasons on Fox, from 2009 to 2015, Rachel Berry was the ambitious, often abrasive lead of the New Directions. She wanted Broadway more than anything, and she spent much of the show chasing it, sometimes at the expense of her friendships and relationships. Michele earned an Emmy nomination and two Golden Globe nominations for the role. After the show ended she reunited with Murphy on Fox’s Scream Queens, which ran from 2015 to 2016, and took smaller parts in film and television before heading back to the stage.
Michele came to Glee from Broadway, where she had appeared in Les Misérables, Ragtime, Fiddler on the Roof and Spring Awakening. In 2022 she took over as Fanny Brice in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, the role Rachel spent years chasing on the show. The casting drew wide attention because of how closely it mirrored her Glee character’s story.
Who Else Could Be Coming Back
Two castmates hint they may join her. Heather Morris, who played Brittany Pierce, and Chord Overstreet, who played Sam Evans, have both shared social media posts that read like their own confirmations, though neither return has been announced.
Murphy has been talking up a reunion for weeks. He told Entertainment Tonight that he had finished a reboot script and that he had been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members. We covered those comments when he first made them in our earlier report on the Glee reboot script.
The official order came earlier Wednesday. Read more in our story on how Disney+ and Hulu officially ordered the Glee reboot.
What We Still Don’t Know
There is no premiere date yet, and Disney has not confirmed the casting or announced any cast for the new series. It is also unclear how large Rachel’s role will be or how the reboot will connect to the original story.
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