More than a decade after its cancellation, Zoey 101 may be making a comeback. According to sources who spoke to TMZ, actress Jamie Lynn Spears is currently in talks with Nickelodeon to reprise her role for a reboot series that would pick up 10 years after fans last saw Zoey Brooks on screen.
The series would see a 28-year-old “Zoey with an edge,” the sources told the outlet, adding that the series would follow her life in SoCal, which would now feature her being a parent. It is unclear if the rebooted Zoey would have a partner. It is also unclear if or if Austin Butler would return to portray James, as the actor is currently busy with other projects in his bustling acting career.
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The newfound interest in a Zoey 101 reboot follows the successful launches of Blues Clues, All That and Double Dare, which reportedly prompted the network’s interest in bringing back Zoey 101. However, nothing has been confirmed yet and the potential reboot is still just in the talking phases.
Ever since the series aired its final episode on May 2, 2008, fans have called for a reunion or a reboot, and news of talks officially being underway comes just months after Spears teased a reunion, asking fans in January, “I’m just curious, how many of you would watch a reunion/reboot of Zoey?” The poll racked in a 96 percent vote for yes.
The popular series had first premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005, rising to be one of the network’s highest-rated and most successful series of that decade. The series came to an end in 2008 after Spears, then just 16, became pregnant with her first child, Maddie, with then-boyfriend Casey Aldridge shortly after Zoey 101 wrapped production on its fourth season. The final episode aired just a month before Maddie’s birth.
Speaking about her pregnancy in 2016, Spears admitted that the time was difficult and scary. She also revealed that she partly felt responsible for Zoey 101‘s sudden end.
“I think that for me, my biggest concern was, ‘Oh my goodness, I need to tell my mother and my father and my family,’” she told PEOPLE. “And that was extremely important to me. And also I was on a Nickelodeon show, so I felt responsible for what these young girls were going to think looking up to me. And, although Zoey was completely wrapped, they still hadn’t aired the final episodes. So for me, I felt very responsible.”
Despite bearing some guilt regarding the series’ end, and despite widespread belief among viewers that her pregnancy was the reason for the series’ conclusion, Spears clarified in January that her pregnancy was not the reason. Instead, she claimed that Zoey 101 ended because she “went home to finish high school and was going to pursue movies.”