With Hulu unveiling the new intro and announcing a premiere date of August 4th, we can finally start getting hyped for the new series of King of the Hill. I normally wouldn’t allow myself such pre-emptive excitement, I’ve been burned too many times before, but I’m really looking forward to catching up with my old friends on Rainey Street. Let’s see what details the updated opening gives us.
First we see the guys drinking beer as the seasons change, reminding viewers that time has passed since the original series. It’s nice to see the familiar alley looking a little different to normal and that Bill owns a coat.
Next up we see Kahn and Minh arguing, possibly confirming rumours of a split from the leaked storyboards a few weeks ago.
Good Hank makes an appearance with Didi and a slightly older Bobby. Hopefully we’ll get to see a bit more of GH this time around.
John Redcorn shows up and Nancy hops in his car. Have they rekindled their affair? Unfortunately, as I was writing this the sad news that Jonathan Joss has passed away was announced.
This is the big one, the Hills move away! As yet it’s unclear why but Mike Judge revealed at the ATX Television Festival that the family leaves Arlen when Hank takes a job in Saudi Arabia.
In their place is a man I will call New Guy who moves into the Hill house. We don’t see any family with him and it seems like before long he’s enjoying beers in the alley with Boomhauer, Dale and Bill.
Bill starts coughing and in the next shot we see the rest of the crew wearing masks, of course Dale wears his on his chin, so it’s a safe guess that Bill got covid.
A woman and child appear and Boomhauer leaves the alley with them suggesting he now has a family. It is hard to tell how much time has passed and the age of the kid, so it is not certain if Boomhauer is a dad or stepdad. Either way it’ll be good to see if he’s settled and happy.
Dale runs for mayor. I wish we could see this, hopefully we get to hear plenty about it.
With everyone else occupied we see New Guy left drinking alone as the seasons continue to roll by in the background and he eventually walks back indoors. We don’t see him leave and then….
The Hills return, a now grown up Bobby reappears to welcome his parent’s home and we’re all set to start the new series.
I can’t help wondering about New Guy though. Is he still living in the Hill’s house? Surely, if he’s featured so prominently in the opening, he must be a new main character? We’ll just have to wait and see and speculate wildly until then.