Home Entertainment CBS and James Wan developing a MACGYVER TV series reboot!

CBS and James Wan developing a MACGYVER TV series reboot!

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In the immortal words of Robin Williams in Jumanji, “WHAT YEAR IS IT?!”. Just the other day we were hearing about a new TV series reboot for The A-Team, and now comes word that fellow iconic 80’s TV series MacGyver is also being resurrected. Expect sales in Swiss Army knives to suddenly skyrocket.

The report comes from THR who report that this new reboot is being developed by US TV network CBS. The network has tapped R. Scott Gemmill (ER, JAG, NCIS – he clearly has a thing for shows with initialed titles) to write and co-produce this new version alongside Furious 7 and Saw director James Wan, who is also set to direct the pilot. Wan had previously been attached to direct a feature film MacGyver reboot, which fell apart earlier in the year. Joining Gemmill and Wan on the producing side will be original series executive producer Henry Winkler – yes, the Fonz from Happy Days was one of the guys behind MacGyver!

That original ran for 7 seasons from 1985 to 1992 and starred a young Richard Dean Anderson as titular hero Angus MacGyver, an agent working for the US Department of External Services (DXS). What made MacGyver different to most other heroes was that due to his extensive engineering training and encyclopedic scientific knowledge, he would often get out of next to impossible situations by using nothing more than his trusty signature knife – he never carried a gun – and common household items such as duct tape and cleaning chemicals to manufacture all kinds of incredible devices (always preferring non-violent solutions).

The show’s focus on science and engineering didn’t just make it a massive hit that spawned movies, comic books and other spinoffs, but it also provoked huge interests in applied sciences from fans. It was so popular that the term “MacGyver’ even entered the public lexicon as a verb to make up a solution on the fly.

According to THR, this new show will be keeping that premise and is described as “a reimagining of the television series of the same name, following a 20-something MacGyver as he gets recruited into a clandestine organization where he uses his knack for solving problems in unconventional ways to help prevent disasters from happening.” It will be interesting to see if this new MacGyver will still have the trusty knife or have some kind of upgraded tool, seeing as how technology has advanced significantly over the last few decades. Some cable ties and chewing gum are certainly not going to help stop a cyber-terrorist attack.

Whatever changes they make for this new iteration of the show, I just hope they keep some semblance of that iconic theme song!

Good luck getting that out of your head today!

Last Updated: October 5, 2015

2 Comments

  1. Kromas untamed

    October 5, 2015 at 09:13

    McGuyver still holds up in this day and age funnily enough. I recently watched a few episodes and boy he can really science the crap out of problems. He makes Mark Watney look like Mickey Mouse.

    Oh and the Martian was Excellent.

    Reply

  2. Andre116

    October 5, 2015 at 13:25

    So, in each episode he looses his cell or it’s batteries goes flat, forcing him to come up with novel ideas to solve problems?

    Reply

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