‘Saved by the Bell’ Revival Casts New Principal, Replacing Mr. Belding

There’s a new principal at Bayside High. The upcoming reboot of the beloved teen series Saved by the Bell has cast veteran actor John Michael Higgins to play Principal Toddman, according to TV Line. This effectively makes Higgins the successor to Dennis Haskins, who played Principal Belding in the original series, as well as its assorted spinoffs.

The upcoming iteration of Saved by the Bell is slated for Peacock, NBCUniversal’s upcoming streaming service that’s expected to launch in April. 30 Rock’s Tracey Wigfield will serve as writer and executive producer.

In the reboot, Zack Morris has ascended from Bayside’s most popular preppy to the governor of California, who finds himself in hot water after closing too many low-income schools. In order to rectify the situation, he sends these low-income students to high-performing schools, which includes Bayside. The change proves to be a good thing for Higgins’ Principal Toddman, who gets the chance to make a real difference with kids instead of being worn down to a nub by privileged students and their parents.

Prior to his Saved by the Bell casting, Higgins has appeared in a number of noteworthy productions, ranging from TV shows like Arrested Development and Bob’s Burgers to movies like Best in Show and the Pitch Perfect series. He’ll be joined by previous Saved cast members Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley, who’ll be reprising their roles of A.C. Slater and Jessie Spano, respectively.

Despite Zack Morris being involved with the reboot, at least tangentially, it’s unclear if actor Mark-Paul Gosselaar will be reprising the iconic role. He is, however, in favor of the reboot happening, so long as it’s “worth everyone’s time.”

“There’s a lot of versions that we see that don’t do it justice,” Gosselaar said. “But I’d like to see a version, yeah, I’d like to see a version that we’d all agree on.”

Gosselaar’s former co-star, Tiffani Thiessen, also isn’t sure if she’ll be involved in the reboot or not.

“I guess I’m not shocked about it,” she told PopCulture.com. “I guess I’ll be curious as everybody else to see what exactly it is, I don’t know anything.”

Saved by the Bell started off as a Disney Channel series in 1988 called Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which starred Gosselaar and Hayley Mills as the eponymous teacher. The following year, the show migrated to NBC, where it was retooled as the stylized high school comedy everyone remembers. It aired from 1989 to 1993, later spawning two spinoff series and a pair of TV movies.