LIGHTS OUT

‘Friday Night Lights’ Star Rejects Offer to Join Reboot

Taylor Kitsch has turned down the acting gig for a surprising career pivot: A Montana addiction treatment center.

Taylor Kitsch, who played the Panthers’ football star Tim Riggins in Friday Night Lights, will not be returning for the remake. The actor told TheWrap at a The Terminal List: Dark Wolf press conference that he was aware of the reboot, but brushed the offer aside for plans outside of acting. “I was asked to do it. Umm, yeah, I’m not going back. No,” Kitsch said. The actor will instead focus on running a 22-acre treatment center in Montana to help veterans and those battling addiction. “Addiction runs through my family, it’s affected my life on so many levels... and the veteran families have affected my life for the better,” Kitsch said. “We’re gonna create an environment up there for change, inner work... it’s not just broad stroking the same kind of trauma or whatnot, it’s really kind of individualizing their needs, and that’s our focus.” The original 2006 drama surrounds the events of a local high school football team in the rural town of Dillon, Texas. The show ran for five years, ending in 2011, and starred Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Jesse Plemons, Minka Kelly, Jurnee Smollett and Michael B. Jordan. The reboot, which will air on Peacock, was announced in Nov. 2024 by Deadline, and will still focus on the highs and lows of high school football.