After what has felt like an eternity of teases and small, disembodied clips, Mike Judge has finally graced the world with the first full trailer for the upcoming King of the Hill revival series at Hulu. The two minutes, which you can watch below, represents the official return of the Hill family to their beloved conservative hotbed of Arlen, TX–but how much as changed in the last 15 years, since King of the Hill went off the air? Unlike the original series, which had an epic run from 1997 to 2009 on Fox, time has appropriately jumped forward in the reboot: Hank Hill is now retired, and is returning to Arlen after more than a decade of working and living with Peggy in Saudi Arabia of all places. In extremely apropos fashion for Hank, he’s seemingly repurchased the family’s original home, but the reboot will surely force him to grapple with much deeper changes than the most recent owner has redecorated it. As the official synopsis puts it:
After years working a propane job in Saudi Arabia to earn their retirement nest egg, Hank and Peggy Hill return to a changed Arlen, Texas to reconnect with old friends Dale, Boomhauer and Bill. Meanwhile, Bobby is living his dream as a chef in Dallas and enjoying his 20s with his former classmates Connie, Joseph and Chane.
The King of the Hill reboot has been a long time in coming, and has been through some tribulations. Notable among them was the 2023 passing of actor, writer and producer Johnny Hardwick, who portrayed Hank’s neighbor Dale Gribble on the series. He recorded lines for a handful of episodes of the reboot prior to his passing, and will be replaced in subsequent episodes by veteran performer Toby Huss, who already was a regular on King of the Hill as Kahn and Hank’s father Cotton. Last month brought another tragedy with the violent death of Jonathan Joss, who played John Redcorn on the series, and was killed in an altercation with a neighbor that has been described as a homophobic hate crime. Joss, who also famously portrayed a Parks and Recreation recurring character, likewise recorded lines for a handful of episodes of the reboot before his passing. These deaths cast something of a pall over the series, but one hopes that Beavis and Butthead creator Judge can find a way to both honor the legacies of these performers and walk his typically fine line of cultural and political commentary. It should be noted that most of the original cast is still intact, with performers such as Judge (Hank), Kathy Najimy (Peggy), and Pamela Adlon (Bobby) all returning.
As for the trailer itself, it’s a bit uncanny to see Arlen again, and the King of the Hill crew, rendered in such crisp animation, but we’ll surely get more used to the show’s visual evolution with time. Its sense of humor remains intact–we look forward to seeing Hank engaged in what looks like a homebrewed beer competition with Bobby–and there are hints of its newly emerging identity as well, such as a few lines from what sounds like Toby Huss portraying Dale, complaining about the presence of soccer in their hallowed back alley, the site where countless beers have been crushed. King of the Hill returns as a Hulu streaming original on Aug. 4, 2025. Check out the first trailer below.
