'Everybody Still Hates Chris' Cast and Creator Discuss Animated Revival Series for a New Generation of Fans (2024)

Everybody Hates Chris, the 2000s sitcom loosely based on the childhood experiences of Chris Rock, left a formative impact on a generation of kids, teenagers, and adults. Now, a new reboot series, Everybody Still Hates Chris, will tell Chris' story for a new generation and revive the glory of the original show in a whole new format. Showrunner and executive producer Sanjay Shah (Fresh Off the Boat) is bringing back some familiar faces and a few newcomers in hopes of honoring and continuing the popular series' legacy.

The original show, which tackled coming-of-age, parenting, and class/social status, was simultaneously hilarious and wholesome. In the show, the young Chris, played by Abbott Elementary's Tyler James Williams, grows up in the Bronx neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant. He lives with his two siblings and his parents, played by Terry Crews and Tichina Arnold, and struggles with adolescence, surviving his dysfunctional family, and the burden of attending his all-white school in the 1980s.

At this year's San Diego Comic-Con, Shah, Crews, Arnold, and the rest of the new core cast, Tim Johnson Jr., who's taking over the mantle of young Chris; Ozioma Akagha, who will play Tonya; Terrence Little Gardenhigh, who voices Drew; and Gunnar Sizemore, who voices Greg all stopped by Collider's media studio to speak with Meredith Loftus. They discuss the importance of joining this revival series, what the show means to them, and what they hope to bring to the OG audience and new viewers. Johnson Jr. also shares what it was like getting the call to play a young Chris Rock and his experience meeting Williams at SDCC!

You can watch their full conversation in the video above or read the transcript below.

Everybody Hates Chris

Comedy

Reboot of Chris Rock's beloved autobiographical family sitcom.

Release Date

September 22, 2005

Cast

Tyler James Williams , Terry Crews , Vincent Martella , Tichina Arnold , Imani Hakim , Chris Rock

Seasons

4

Animation Will Bring New Life to 'Everybody Hates Chris'

COLLIDER: Sanjay, I want to kick things off with you. How exciting is it for you to bring back this beloved series through the medium of animation? What's that been like for you?

SANJAY SHAH: I love animation. I've been working in animation for almost 20 years—King of the Hill, South Park, I worked on a Pixar movie, a series that's coming out next year, Central Park, for Apple. I’m biased. I’ve worked live-action, as well, on shows like Fresh Off the Boat. But animation lets us explore more in every way. You can use it to express emotions, to lean into fantasy moments. The camera can be anywhere. You can enter new worlds. Especially when considering how to do a reboot in a fresh way. This feels more like a reimagining, so we cannot depart from what made the OG show great and continue telling that story because there are so many stories left to tell. When [Chris and I] talked about what we would do with the show, we really gelled over stories that he still had to tell, and what we could do with the animation, but this allows this show to be its own fresh version of the OG show.

Can you tease what type of stories that you're hoping to explore in this season?

SHAH: I don't want to give too much away, but I think people should, especially fans of the original, be prepared for a lot of your favorite characters returning in surprising ways, finding our core characters in new situations, lots of Easter eggs. The show is also known for its music, and we have a new and unique approach to music on the show. We break structure a lot, which is another thing we get to do in a fun way in animation, so the shows don't feel formulaic. We really take advantage of the medium.

That's so exciting to hear. Because animation does give you that freedom, you can break the rules.

Terry Crews Wouldn't Do 'Everybody Still Hates Chris' Without Tichina Arnold

Terry and Tichina, what has it been like for you to reprise your roles as Chris' parents? Did you find that it was easy to jump back into it or did you take a different approach coming from a voice acting perspective?

TICHINA ARNOLD: It's exciting for me because it's the first time I really was able to put my foot in animation, which I've been wanting to do for quite some time. Once you're on that mic, and you're talking to Sanjay, everything started coming back to me. It forced me to remember things that we used to do. It made me remember just how invested I was in the character, and to see it played out and then, to finally see my animated character, so much fun. I'm looking forward to it.

TERRY CREWS: Every character that I've ever played has been my child. I actually have five children in real life, but what's so weird and crazy and wonderful is that it feels like they were always there. Once they're here, I don't remember a time when they weren't, which is really strange. The same thing with this character, Julius. It was like jumping right back in. It was like he always existed, he was always here. I could go right back into it in the flow. There's no way I would have done this show without Tichina. Most of our magic that we had on the sitcom was together. We spent more time together than we did with our own families. Once I knew that she was on board, I knew that I could be on board, and we had the greatest showrunner in Sanjay, who respected and understood the legacy of this show. And let me tell you, everything I've been hearing, everything I read has been stellar. It's been absolutely amazing. I'm proud to put my name on it.

That's exciting. Now you are parents to young Tim over here!

ARNOLD: We've got a new set of kids! [Laughs]

'Everybody Still Hates Chris' Star Got to Meet Tyler James Williams

"Tyler's the man."

Tim, what was it like getting the call that you had been cast as a young Chris Rock?

TIM JOHNSON JR.: It was crazy. I was taking my sister to school and I had my phone on "Do not disturb." I'm not doing that anymore!

SHAH: [Laughs] Disturb me with good news!

JOHNSON JR: I got home, and we have a driveway camera and everything. So I rang the doorbell, and on the iPhone you can read messages and your voicemails and stuff. So, I'm reading, “You booked.” So I was like, “Let me hear what I booked.” I put it on, and it was like, "You're playing Chris!" I was like, “What? Thank you, God!" My dad was right there, and he came out and was like, "What's going on?" I was like, "I'm playing Chris!" It’s such a big thing for me because this is one of my favorite shows. This is a dream come true.

What does it mean for you, taking the mantle from Tyler James Williams, who played young Chris originally?

JOHNSON JR: Tyler's the man. I got to meet him today. That was so exciting. He congratulated me and everything, and we had a great conversation. This is big, paying homage to him and Mr. Rock and what they built already. For me to be able to reprise this is truly a blessing, and I've been having a lot of fun.

That's so exciting. If you could have any comedian narrate your life, who would it be and why?

SHAH: Gilbert Gottfried. It would be so annoying.

OZIOMA AKAGHA: You got that one fast! That was fast, Sanjay.

GUNNAR SIZEMORE: Do Statler and Waldorf count? From The Muppets? They're not human comedians, but...

They count. I mean, they're better than human comedians. They're The Muppets!

SIZEMORE: [Laughs] I'll take Statler and Waldorf any day.

TERRENCE LITTLE GARDENHIGH: I would have to say Dave Chappelle.

CREWS: I gotta go with Bernie Mac. That voice is so iconic. It's like, “Oh, let me tell you something right here! Terry Crews!” Sorry, I'm a bad Bernie. [Laughs]

ARNOLD: I would love Wanda Sykes.

JOHNSON JR: I think for me, I was gonna say Chris Rock, but Chris Tucker.

ARNOLD: Oh, you have the same tone!

JOHNSON JR: That would be crazy.

AKAGHA: Wanda Sykes is a good one. Sommore—she did The Queens of Comedy!

What 'Everybody Still Hates Chris' Represents For a New Generation of Fans

What do you hope that fans, old and new, will walk away from with this reimagining of Everybody Still Hates Chris?

ARNOLD: Love. There's a lot of love that was put into it before, and now we got a new set of love. It's not even something that's been reinvented. Sanjay took something that is already something, and now we have something else that has been birthed from that.

AKAGHA: I would say connection and family. I think after the pandemic happened, and Zoom is still in our lives, so many kids went to school for so long without being connected. I would say connection and family. It's getting out of your phone, getting out of your day-to-day hustle and bustle of your life, and sitting down with your family and watching something that feels like home but on TV.

CREWS: Because she brought that up—during the pandemic, that got a lot of people on Everybody Hates Chris. People went back and watched more episodes over and over. It's also an era where there were no phones. You actually had to talk to people. If you told people you were going to show up somewhere, you couldn't text and say I wasn't going to be there. You actually had to show up. It's wild when kids watch those rules of that life and that time. It's an eye-opener. I'm thankful that it's a time capsule, but we continue that here in the animation. Like Sanjay said earlier, Chris Rock gives us a perspective and compares everything to today, but in this show right here, it's still in the ‘80s. It's still very fresh and new.We know life is going to change, but to them, it's not. They're right there in it and I love it.

SHAH: I hope the OG fans and new fans think that it's funny. We worked hard to make it a funny show, a grounded show, a show that respects the original, but funny first. We worked real hard to make a funny show for everyone.

GARDENHIGH: I would say nostalgia for the people that grew up watching the show—kids, adults, everybody. And then also to entertain. I want people to walk away really loving this show. You know what I mean? Because it's genuinely amazing.

SIZEMORE: There's so much value to the earnestness of the characters, as well. We were talking about this in the panel a little bit, but every character is really trying to do good to their peers and for themselves, and trying to be better in every episode. Even when they fail, even if they do something wrong and they screw up, you still root for them. I think that adds so much to the comedy, as well, because it's really rare to see a comedy with heart where the comedy actually lands. It's either too much comedy or too much heart, but with Chris's story, in particular, it's impossible to separate the two. It's just perfect.

ARNOLD: There have been generations of people watching this show. Like during the pandemic, we had children watching because their parents were watching. Here we are with a breath of fresh air from something that is just so iconic and legendary, and now we get to have new fans and more generations to come.

'Everybody Hates Chris' Paved the Way for 'Fresh Off the Boat'

SHAH: One of the things that was most meaningful to me when I worked on Fresh Off The Boat after it premiered was seeing people post photos of their entire family watching, sometimes three or four generations of people all sitting on the couch together watching the show. There would have been no Fresh Off the Boat without Everybody Hates Chris. It allowed for there to be an edgy family show. It wasn't a show that kids felt were too “little kid,” nor adults, but it was something that, still, multiple generations could sit down and watch. I love seeing those pictures when I worked at Fresh, and I hope for the same for us.

Everybody Still Hates Chris has yet to set a release date. In the meantime, you can rewatch all four seasons of Everybody Hates Chris on Hulu.

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