Just because a TV series ends or is cancelled doesn't mean that's the end of the adventures for those characters. In recent years, TV revivals have become increasingly more common, like The X-Files on Fox or Fuller House on Netflix. Then there's the occasional instance where a show is brought back as a theatrical movie, like what Sex and the City and Entourage did (in the former's case, twice). And then there are those rare instances where a TV show gets a movie in the middle of its run. Reno 911! took that approach in 2007 with Reno 911!: Miami, but according to Thomas Lennon, a.k.a. Lt. Jim Dangle and the show's co-creator, another movie might be on the way all these years after the series' conclusion, and there's already an idea in the works.
Our own Laura Hurley recently spoke with Thomas Lennon about his TV work on CBS's The Odd Couple and Fox's Lethal Weapon, but during the interview, the actor mentioned how the current idea being bounced around for a new Reno 911! movie would address changing perspectives towards the police. Lennon explained:
[Robert Ben Garant] and I have just started talking very seriously about the idea of another Reno movie that sort of deals with like the world of the police now and things like that. We hadn't really talked about it for years because we've just been doing other stuff, we were writing movies here and there. About six weeks ago we genuinely had an idea. We do live in a world where no matter what we do separately or together, the main question people always ask is 'When are you gonna do a Reno thing?' We have a major thought right now for a Reno movie that we're kicking back and forth.
Even though a new Reno 911! movie isn't guaranteed at this point, it sounds like Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, Lennon's fellow co-creator who played Deputy Travis Junior, are giving serious thought on how to return to this world of inept cops. Presumably the idea Lennon alluded to refers to how police brutality has become a bigger issue in recent years. If that's the direction they're aiming for, it will be interesting to see how they find humor in such a widespread problem.
Originally running from 2003-2009, Reno 911! parodied the Cops TV show by following a group of idiot police officers patrolling Reno, Nevada, and much of the material was improvised during shooting. Reno 911!: Miami saw the main characters dealing with a terrorist attack at a police convention in Florida. After airing six seasons, Comedy Central cancelled the series, and although there had been talk of bringing Reno 911! to Netflix, nothing ever surfaced from that.
If Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant and the rest of the creative minds are able to get a new Reno 911! movie off the ground, we'll be sure to let you know.
