Streaming network Peacock has ordered a
reboot of the British gay drama Queer as Folk.
The series from out writer Russell T.
Davies premiered in 1999 on Britain's Channel 4. The first season had
eight episodes, followed by a 2-episode second season. It starred
Aidan Gillen, Charlie Hunnam, and Craig Kelly as three gay men living
in Manchester's gay village.
According to Deadline,
the Peacock version will take place in New Orleans.
Americans are more familiar with
Showtime's 5-season version of Queer as Folk, which premiered
in 2000. The series made history for being the first drama on
television to portray the lives of gay men and women.
The reboot was created by Stephen Dunn,
who worked on Apple TV+'s Little America and is adapting the
novel Yes, Daddy for Amazon Prime.
“It is a surreal honor to adapt the
notoriously groundbreaking series by Russell T. Davies,” Dunn said
in a statement. “When the show originally aired, the idea of
unapologetic queer stories on TV was so provocative that I felt I
could only watch Queer as Folk in secret. But so much has
changed in the last 20 years and how wonderful would it be if the
next generation didn’t have to watch Queer as Folk alone in
their dank basements with the sound muted, but with their family and
friends and the volume cranked all the way to the max.”
The series was originally in
development at Bravo. NBCUniversal owns Peacock and Bravo.
Davies, who has received critical
praise for his AIDS
drama It's
a Sin, will return to serve as an executive producer on the
series.
(Related: Russell
T. Davies says he omitted HIV/AIDS from Queer
as Folk
on purpose.)