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Warning! The following contains spoilers for the latest batch of episodes for King of the Hill. Stream them with a Hulu subscription, and read at your own risk!
King of the Hill's ongoing affair between Nancy Gribble and John Redcorn was put on pause in the latest episodes, and there's a legitimate question of whether it may be over for good. The voice actor for Redcorn, Jonathan Joss, tragically passed away shortly after recording, so CinemaBlend wanted to know whether this marked the end of his character's run on the series.
Showrunner Saladin Patterson spoke to CinemaBlend about the big reveal and how Nancy decided to prioritize her marriage with Dale and their relationship after her decades-long affair was exposed to her minister. While it may seem like the series wrote off John Redcorn because of his death, Patterson confirmed that it was already a part of the script and had nothing to do with the voice actor's passing:
That was a tragedy that still is something that's kinda hard to wrap our heads around, man. It was kind of coincidental that the episode that we had done was also one where Nancy was taking a break from the affair, right? So then Jonathan passes away, unfortunately and tragically. And so now we find ourselves still in the position of it being open-ended, but the added weight now of, well, if we are to continue, what's the best way to do that?
King of the Hill has, unfortunately, had to deal with death a lot amongst its voice cast. Johnny Hardwick, the original voice of Dale Gribble, died in the midst of recording for the revival and was replaced by Toby Huss.
Then there's Lucky and Luanne, who were both voiced by actress Brittany Murphy and singer Tom Petty. Both had died before the idea for a revival came around, and thus far, were written out of the series. Fans would love to see them return, but thus far, that doesn't seem to be on the table. I would say the same is true for John Redcorn, but Patterson admitted he and the writers don't know if he'll return yet:
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To be honest, we're still exploring the pros and cons of that. But I'll say this: we're letting the characters and story kinda lead us in terms of if we then, you know, have Dale and Nancy going on the path or Nancy going on the path where it feels like it would be both comedic and fulfilling to reintroduce that, we'll have to deal with that then.
As a fan of King of the Hill, I can see the problem. The idea of Nancy and Dale having a faithful marriage is intriguing, and I do wonder what could've led to her long affair in the first place. Outside of the cheating, she's always been a good wife to him, and loves him in her own way, but would removing that element change things?
On the other side of the coin, I think King of the Hill fans have long wanted to see the payoff of the fact that Joseph is clearly not Dale's biological son. The revival has already played on this joke a bit, with Joseph lamenting the struggles of being a white man, and Bobby needing to subtly tell others not to address the fact that he's not caucasian.
King of the Hill is a mix of comedy and drama, so I guess it would come down to whether Joseph learning John Redcorn is his real father would open the door to some interesting and funny storylines. Unfortunately, the new series has way fewer episodes to fill a season than it did back in the day. Characters like Joseph aren't ignored, but they're also not given the spotlight they once had. We can only wait and see what happens, and see if the story finds a way to bring back John Redcorn with a new voice actor.
King of the Hill's latest revival seasons are available to stream over on Hulu. The series is already renewed for the next couple of seasons, so those holding back on watching needn't fear it going away anytime soon.