New ‘Queer As Folk’ Inspired By Pulse Nightclub Massacre

Michael Kaplan May 12, 2022

A reboot of Queer As Folk is coming to the Peacock streaming network.

This will be the third iteration of the series following the original British version by Russell T. Davies (It’s a Sin), and the hugely popular U.S. version that aired on Showtime.

The Hollywood Reporter:

Creator Stephen Dunn doesn’t consider his Peacock take on Queer as Folk a “reboot.”

Instead, the filmmaker behind 2015’s Closet Monster sees the third version of the groundbreaking drama as a “reimagining” that has homages to Russell T Davies’ British original that also inspired the Showtime update. “We’re acknowledging the past while fully paving our own way because that was the only way I could approach this,” Dunn tells The Hollywood Reporter in his first interview about the series. “We had to break new ground in order to tell the story and to make it relevant because we have our own generation’s things to say. We have a new story.”

Queer as Folk was my awakening. It was the first time I saw myself reflected [on TV] but it was also something I used to watch in my basement with the volume turned down low with the remote programmed to “last channel” waiting for someone to come in. It was insular, private and something I could not share with anyone, but my life was never the same after I saw it. I was 12 years old. And I was watching the American version at the time with bated breath between the sex scenes and these queer storylines.
When I was in high school, I found the DVDs and rented the British version at a local video store and it took my breath away. It was so punk, so angry. So reverent, so messy. There were car explosions and queer people in the driver’s seat in a real, raw, honest kind of way. Making queer stories has always been important to me. I have always wanted to push stories outside of the coming of age and to dive into the nuances of being queer now.
I had three films at Sundance a few years ago now. It was the year I made Closet Monster and Lee Eisenberg and Emily Brecht found those films and talked about wanting to do a show with me. We floated the idea of Queer as Folk and I was just like, “That’s it. That’s what I wanted.” I want to take that title and reimagine it for a modern story line. The Showtime rights to Queer as Folk had expired and they reverted back to Russell. I was in the U.K. and hopped on a train, set up a meeting and pitched Russell my take.
I knew what it was going to be about. I knew the story. I knew the premise. I knew I wanted it to be about a community rebuilding after a Pulse night club-like tragedy. He loved the concept and the energy that I brought to it and felt like this had the potential to expand on the legacy of this series.

The first season of Queer as Folk premieres June 9 on Peacock.

Meet the new cast!