King of the Hill: Johnny Hardwick Recorded “A Couple” Hulu Revival Episodes Before Death

King of the Hill is now in the works on a new revival series coming to Hulu, and late Dale Gribble voice actor Johnny Hardwick reportedly completed recording on a “couple” of the new episodes before his death. It was announced earlier this week that Hardwick had passed at the age of 64. Hardwick was not only notably the voice of Dale Gribble (and a few other smaller roles throughout the original series), but served as a story editor, writer and producer for many of the episodes as well. And for the new Hulu revival series, Hardwick was one of the stars previously confirmed to return. 

Hulu had announced earlier this year that King of the Hill was returning with a new revival series with series creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels returning alongside original cast members like Hardwick, Kathy Najimy, Stephen Root, Pamela Adlon, and Lauren Tom confirmed to return as well. It seems work on the revival had already begun according to previous updates, and a new report from TVLine reveals that Hardwick was able to complete work on “a couple” episodes from the new Hulu revival series before his untimely passing. 

King of the Hill: Johnny Hardwick’s Work on Hulu Episodes Revealed

Unfortunately TVLine’s report does not reveal how much work on these episodes had been done, nor has it been announced whether or not a new voice actor will be recruited to fill the role as King of the Hill‘s new series currently eyes a potential 2024 release. There are many questions still lingering about the upcoming King of the Hill revival in general as it will reportedly feature a time skip according to a previous comment from star Stephen Root (who voices Bill Dauterive, among others in the series), “I think we’re going to time jump in this a little bit so that Bobby’s going to be older, and it’s going to be interesting…”

As a result of this time skip, and all of the unfortunate losses behind the scenes, the new King of the Hill series will likely be a much different kind of revival than fans might be expecting to see. But with the original run of the series often dealing with many grounded topics and real world momentum for the characters, King of the Hill’s team will likely be very respectful in terms of how they might move forward from such painful losses. 

What do you hope to see from the way King of the Hill’s new episodes handles Dale without Johnny Hardwick? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation@Valdezology on Twitter!

via TVLine