‘The Hills’ Reboot With New Cast in the Works

MTV is bringing back The Hills again, this time with an all-new cast. The Hills: Next Gen is expected to feature are more diverse cast than the original MTV hit series, reports Deadline. The new series announcement comes months after The Hills: New Beginnings was canceled after just two seasons.

The new series will follow another group of 20-something friends living in a very different Los Angeles from the original Hills cast. “They will navigate realities of race, class, identity, addiction, family drama along with the thrills of romance and becoming self-made amidst the exclusive enclave of the hills in Malibu,” reads the show’s description. Next Gen will be produced by MTV Entertainment Studios.

The Hills was born in 2006 as a spin-off from Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and created by Adam DiVello. The original cast featured Lauren Conrad, Heidi Montag, Audrina Partridge, and Whitney Port, with Kristin Cavallari,Lo Bosworth, and Stephanie Pratt joining the show later. The Hills was one of MTV’s marquee reality franchises and inspired the spinoffs The City, Bromance, and Audrina.

In 2018, Brody Jenner, Patridge, Montag, Pratt, Port, Justin Brescia, and Frankie Delgado all returned for The Hills: New Beginnings, which brought Mischa Barton and Brandon Thomas Lee into the fold. After the first season aired in 2019, the show was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic. Season 2 did not air until May 2021, as MTV declined to film new episodes in a quarantine bubble and waited until California began lifting COVID-19 safety protocols. In January, MTV canceled New Beginnings.

The Hills fans still had a reason to celebrate after New Beginnings ended. In February, Kast Media announced plans to launch a Hills rewatch podcast this spring. The company did not announce which cast members would take part, but previous Kast Media rewatch podcasts have included major stars from their subjects. For example, Rachel Bilson and Melinda Clark host Welcome to The OC, Bitches!, which has featured interviews with other cast and crew members of The OC.

“The Hills was such an iconic staple of reality tv, and it was part of our everyday conversations at one point,” Harris Lane, VP of Content Distribution & Strategy at Kast Media, told Deadline in February. “We want the fans of the show to relive those moments, and the storylines that had us all captivated by this world of the LA elite. This is an opportunity for Kast to invite audiences into the living room and hear the truth straight from the mouths of the cast members.”