“On August 4, I will be back and I am pissed off.”
So said Mike Judge as the voice of Hank Hill to close Friday’s “King of the Hill” reunion and revival panel at the ATX Television Festival. Fans packed a sold-out Paramount Theater in Austin, TX to celebrate the first 13 seasons of the Fox animated comedy and get an exclusive preview of Season 14, straight from the series’ co-creators Judge and Greg Daniels, executive producer and new showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, and members of the voice cast Pamela Adlon (who won an Emmy for portraying Bobby Hill), Lauren Tom (who voices Minh and Connie Souphanousinphone), and Toby Huss (who voiced Kahn Souphanousinphone and Cotton Hill in the original run and will replace the late Johnny Hardwicke as Dale Gribble in the revival).
In addition to a teaser that updates the original credits (which you can watch below), attendees were treated to a clip of Hank and Peggy returning to Texas after spending several years working in Saudi Arabia, as well as a longer teaser with plenty of scenes featuring a now 21-year-old Bobby.
“Where it clicked for me was when we started talking about aging the characters,” Judge said about deciding to seriously pursue a new season. “Because it’s such a grounded realistic show, it just felt right that they would be older.”
In Season 14, Hank and Peggy are now retired and have just moved back to Texas. Bobby is working as a successful sushi chef in Dallas — the news of which elicited a chorus of boos from the loyal Austin crowd. Worse still, it’s a “German sushi robata” restaurant, which means Bobby is using charcoal, not propane, to grill his food. Given Hank’s lifelong devotion to liquified petroleum gas, the gasps from the gathered fans were well-warranted.
“You didn’t see that one coming did you?” Huss said, prodding the audience.
“As an adult, he’s become more centered and almost a little bit more like his dad,” Adlon said.
Tom revealed that Connie is practicing ENM — “ethical non-monogamy” — while Daniels reported that Hank taking a new job overseas was pretty hard on his friend Bill (voiced by Stephen Root). “I think I finished Netflix,” Daniels said, quoting the character’s reaction to Hank’s return.
Hank, meanwhile, has mixed feelings about being back in America. Although the initial clip showed him so thankful to be in Texas that he drops to his knees and kisses the ground, what’s waiting for him isn’t the same Arlin he left behind.
“Hank kinda liked that women were covered up and modest [in Saudi Arabia],” Judge said. “He comes back and there’s a bike lane and a scooter lane. […] He’s looking at all the stuff that’s happened in the last 15 years, and there’s a whole world of things that would annoy Hank.”
“Peggy is a character who feels she can do anything, and now she has the free time to do it,” Patterson said. “So we get to see Peggy try some new things to see what post-retirement life looks like for her. But at the end of the day, this is still going to be about their relationship, supporting each other and encouraging each other. We just have a little fun with their neuroses.”
With Dale Gribble, original voice actor Johnny Hardwicke recorded six episodes before his death in 2023. Huss will take over the role for the rest of the run.
“That you guys trusted me to do his voice again is really humbling,” Huss said. “I’m not trying to copy Johnny as much as I’m trying to be Johnny and hope Dale comes out of that. … All I’m trying to do is hold onto that Daleness. We love our Johnny, and we’re so sad he’s not here.”
Regarding any changes to the character himself, Huss hinted at another major pivot for a man known for taking big swings.
“Dale’s back doing his thing, man,” Huss said. “Dale now is a little bit left of right, where he used to be all the way right. Now he’s been out-righted by the right with the conspiracy theory stuff. We’ll see how Dale reacts to the new world. We’ll see what he can do.”
“King of the Hill” originally ran from 1997 – 2009, spanning 13 seasons and 259 episodes — all of which are available on Hulu. The new season will premiere August 4 with 10 episodes. Watch the teaser below.
