King of the Hill voice actor Toby Huss, speaking to Consequence via Zoom, knows that when people sit down to watch the return of the Fox-now-Hulu animated series, they may have certain expectations. “When I see things coming back like this, I go, ‘Well, I hope they didn’t mess it up,'” he says. “I’m going to be grumpy and I’m going to watch it and go, ‘Oh man, if you guys stunk this up, there’s gonna be problems.'”
But then, he hopes, “we can get over that hump with the audience, and then the doors will open up and they’ll be able to love it. But I think, initially, I would suspect that some people are just hoping we didn’t ruin it.”
“And we didn’t,” castmate Stephen Root agrees.
“The writing is so strong,” Lauren Tom adds. “I don’t think they’re going to be disappointed. I’d be surprised.”
When King of the Hill first premiered on Fox in 1997, the Internet was primarily the domain of misfits and nerds, and Bill Clinton was President. Running for 13 seasons before coming to a close in 2010, the show created an unforgettable community of characters living in the small town of Arlen, Texas, with patriarch Hank Hill, voiced by co-creator Mike Judge, serving as the voice of reason in unreasonable times.
In 2025, of course, times feel even more unreasonable, and exploring that dichotomy was top of mind for showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, who Judge and co-creator Greg Daniels brought in to serve as showrunner. Patterson tells Consequence that his experience reviving The Wonder Years for ABC in 2021 taught him a lot “in terms of dealing with the beloved property that you’re bringing back — the pitfalls there, and the things to do right.” That made him a nice fit for the project, as it was very important to Judge and Daniels that the new season “keep the core fans happy.”
Key to the new season is how it begins: With Hank and Peggy Hill returning to Arlen after living for many years in Saudi Arabia — thus making Hank a bit of a stranger in a strange land. “He’s dealing with how the world has changed, how the country’s changed, how Arlen’s changed since he’s been gone,” Patterson says. “I really resonated with that because in the original [series], Hank Hill represented the common sense middle ground: Whether you lean left or right, Hank was always the point of view that represented how we have more in common than we have that are different.”
That made the character a refreshing one in 1997 and presented a unique opportunity for the creators today. “Everyone knew that he was a quote-unquote Republican then,” Patterson continues. “But now, if you have Hank Hill come back and represent that same middle ground, he’s no longer a Republican. The extreme has moved so far to the extreme that they look at Hank Hill’s middle ground as the other end now.”
It’s not meant to be specifically an opportunity for political commentary, Patterson feels, especially because “the original show wasn’t as political as people have projected onto it. It was more about cultural social commentary. And that’s what we tried to continue, with this revival. To put a beloved character in a situation where now he’s experiencing things from a new point of view — that brings the audience on board with him, to maybe shine a light on some cultural things now that the original show couldn’t then.”
Patterson doesn’t think this has made the show more political, though. In fact, he says, that was a “trap” he and the writers tried to avoid, “because things are so polarized now. It’s easy to say, you know, ‘Let’s do the immigration episode.’ But that’s never what the show was. The show was always about small, relatable stories, based on our characters and their experiences as parents or husband or wife or neighbors or friends.”
Maintaining the original show’s focus on “small, relatable stories” was a core concept Patterson brought to the revival, while also making sure that Hank “stayed in that very ironic, uncomfortable ground where people in society project onto him meaning and belief based on their own issues, more so than who he really is. That’s just a very fun comedic ground to put a main character in, where he’s constantly having to defend himself because what he does or said is more interpreted based on other people’s beliefs than his own.”
While a lot has changed for Hank and his family, what hasn’t changed about King of the Hill is “the wholesomeness and the sweetness and the authenticity,” as Tom puts it. “It’s the perfect time for our show to come back. Because I think that people are looking for anchors.”
“It’s not like a murder show coming back,” Root says. “You want to be able to sit down and relax and enjoy with your family, and you can.”
“I think what this show does really well is that lets the characters embrace each other, at some point in the course of the show,” Huss says. “Ultimately, it’s a very silly show, but it’s very sweet and it’s very kind.”
King of the Hill (Hulu)
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