Just because Friday Night Lights is returning doesn’t mean Q1 Matt Saracen will make an appearance.
“No one’s called me,” Zach Gilford exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting season 3 of Criminal Minds: Evolution. “I don’t know who they’ve called. I don’t know if they’ve called other people — I’m sure they have.”
Gilford, 43, admitted he had conflicting feelings about rebooting the hit sports drama, adding, “It’s like, ‘Well, this worked 15 years ago so let’s do it again.’ It’s nostalgia. There was a little lightning in a bottle and maybe you can catch it again.”
Despite not currently being involved in Peacock’s iteration, Gilford wished the project lots of luck.
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“I hope it’s great. I hope for everyone involved that it is a wonderful show. I’ll watch it,” he shared. “If they want me to be involved … I loved working with [executive producer] Peter [Berg]. I loved working with everyone. So I jump at any opportunity but I don’t know anything about it except that Peacock’s doing it.”
Friday Night Lights, which aired on NBC from 2006 to 2011, followed a high school football team in a fictional Texas town. Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton lead the cast of FNL, which helped skyrocket several people to fame including Gilford, Taylor Kitsch, Minka Kelly, Jesse Plemons, Scott Porter, Aimee Teegarden, Michael B. Jordan and more.
Gilford isn’t the only one who hasn’t been reached out to yet. Chandler, 59, recently confirmed he wasn’t contacted yet while Kelly, 44, admitted she was focused on her current Netflix series Ransom Canyon.
“I can’t wait to watch [Minka’s new show]. I’m hanging out with her next week. I would love to work with [her] because we never, ever had a scene together on Friday Night Lights,” Gilford told Us. “Minka is one of my closest friends from that show. She’s a close friend in real life still — and we never had a scene together. Our whole friendship was based off of when we’re not at work.”
There’s also an opportunity for Gilford to reunite with his Friday Night Lights costars on Criminal Minds.
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“I would bring her over in a heartbeat. I’m still looking forward to getting [to direct my next] episode so that if there’s anything I can put a friend in I could do,” he said before joking, “Let’s start with Jesse [Plemons]. I would be like, ‘Bro, I know you’ve always wanted to do an episode of Criminal Minds. Don’t worry about your Oscar. It’s fine.’ But it’s just so fun to work with your friends.”
Luckily Gilford is already having the time of his life playing fictional killer Elias Voit on Criminal Minds.
“No matter what [role] it is, I try to make people like the character. No matter what they’re doing or how bad they are. It’s fun, especially with someone like a serial killer. Or even when I worked on Good Girls, I was a guy who cheated on his pregnant wife and I was like, ‘But I want everyone to like me,’” he quipped to Us. “The thing is just about making people likable and to draw you in.”
Gilford continued: “I feel very, very fortunate and lucky — especially as the guy who started out as Matt [Saracen on Friday Night Lights] — the nicest guy in the world. For a long time, all anyone wanted me to do was be the nice guy. I am still kind of being the nice guy [but] I just happen to have done bad things [on screen as Voit].”
New episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution air Thursdays on Paramount+.
