Legacy TV Sequels Are Handing the Story to a New Generation

In the fall of 1987, two very different shows made the same bet. Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered on September 28, set a century after the original series, with a new crew on a new Enterprise. A few days earlier, A Different World premiered, following a new group of students at a college called Hillman. Nearly four decades later, both franchises are making that move again, and they are not alone.

For years, TV revivals meant getting the old cast back together. The newest wave does something different. It hands the story to the kids, the students, the interns, and the successors. Here is a look at how legacy television got here, which shows are leading the shift, and what separates a good handoff from a rough one.

What “Next Generation” Means on TV Now

The first wave of revivals was a reunion. The same characters came back, older and a little worn, and the pitch was nostalgia. The shows in this new wave still bring back familiar faces, but their main characters are someone else. A daughter arrives at her parents’ alma mater. A new class of cadets enrolls in Starfleet. A group of new interns joins an old hospital.

There is also a business reason. A recent industry roundup describes studios leaning on familiar titles while streamers focus on profitability and keeping subscribers, since a known brand is easier for viewers to choose than an untested original. A next generation story makes an old brand look new without losing the thing that made people care in the first place.

The Playbook Started Earlier

Two shows proved the template, and the risks that come with it.

Girl Meets World premiered on Disney Channel on June 27, 2014, as a sequel to Boy Meets World. Cory and Topanga are married with two children, and their daughter, Riley Matthews, navigates middle school with her best friend, Maya Hart. Cory is also her history teacher, and several Boy Meets World actors made appearances. It ended on January 20, 2017, after 69 episodes.

That ’90s Show arrived on Netflix on January 19, 2023, as a sequel to That ’70s Show. Leia Forman, the daughter of Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti, spends the summer of 1995 with her grandparents, Red and Kitty, in Point Place, Wisconsin. Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp returned as regulars, and original stars including Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Mila Kunis, and Ashton Kutcher turned up in recurring or guest roles. Season one earned a 75 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Netflix canceled the series on October 3, 2024, after two seasons and 26 episodes.

So the template works, and it can still end early. Both of those facts matter for what came next.

2026 Is When the Handoff Went Mainstream

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

Starfleet Academy premiered on Paramount+ on January 15, 2026, and its ten episodes ran through March 12. It is set in the 32nd century, the far future introduced in Star Trek: Discovery, after a cataclysm called the Burn left the Federation and Starfleet recovering. The first new class of cadets in over a century trains aboard the USS Athena, which docks at the San Francisco campus.

Holly Hunter plays Nahla Ake, the Athena’s captain and the Academy’s chancellor, and Paul Giamatti plays the main villain, Nus Braka. The cadets include Caleb Mir, a disillusioned young man searching for his mother, a Klingon cadet, and Sam, the first Kasqian cadet. The bridge to the franchise’s past comes from familiar faces. Robert Picardo returns as the Doctor from Voyager, now a holographic teacher, and Tig Notaro and Oded Fehr reprise roles from Discovery.

Critics liked it, with roughly 85 percent positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Audience scores were a different story. They were review bombed after the first two episodes, and on January 26, the audience score sat at 43 percent against a critic score of 88 percent. On March 23, CBS and Paramount announced that season two would be the last.

The name of the franchise is worth remembering. The original Next Generation had a rough start too. Reviewers in season one complained about trite plots and stilted dialogue, and season two was widely seen as much better. The series grew to a peak audience of 11.5 million and ran seven seasons. Starfleet Academy did not get that kind of runway.

A Different World

A Different World returned on Netflix on September 24, 2026, exactly 39 years after the original premiered. The new series follows Deborah Wayne, played by Maleah Joi Moon, the youngest daughter of Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne, as she starts at Hillman, a fictional HBCU. Dwayne has come back to Hillman as provost, and Whitley runs a successful cosmetics brand. Seven original stars returned, including Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Cree Summer, Darryl M. Bell, and Jenifer Lewis, and Debbie Allen, who helped shape the original, is an executive producer and director. Felicia Pride is the showrunner.

The format changed with the generation. The original was a multi camera sitcom, and this one was shot with a single camera, without a studio audience or laugh track, and the show is billed as a hopeful dramedy. The reviews were split on whether that works. TheWrap said it honors the original while finding its own voice, and praised several of the new students for giving depth to characters who might have been background color in earlier sitcoms. TVLine’s reviewer said the series is “far too light on the magic and charisma” of the original, and felt Whitley and Dwayne seemed diminished by their new problems.

Audiences tuned in. Netflix said the show debuted at No. 4 on its Global Top 10 English TV list with 4.2 million views, and on October 2, it was renewed for season two, which will follow Deborah and her classmates into their sophomore year.

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair

Hulu’s four episode Malcolm in the Middle revival premiered in April 2026 with most of the original cast, including Frankie Muniz, Bryan Cranston, and Jane Kaczmarek. Its next generation is Leah, Malcolm’s daughter, played by Keeley Karsten. Karsten was born after the original series ended and had never seen the show before she was cast. Like her father, Leah talks directly to the camera.

We reviewed the revival in Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, the First Reboot in a Long Time That Actually Gets It Right. We argued that Leah inherits her father’s anxiety and her grandmother’s nerve, and that the new characters share the stage with the veterans instead of being pushed to the side.

The Testaments

The Testaments premiered on Hulu on April 8, 2026, as a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale and is based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel. It is set in Gilead, four years after the War of Massachusetts in the first episode. The leads are the young women who grew up in its shadow. Agnes MacKenzie, played by Chase Infiniti, is June Osborne’s biological daughter, who was raised entirely in Gilead and who began as Hannah Bankole in The Handmaid’s Tale. Daisy, played by Lucy Halliday, is a Canadian teenager who becomes an undercover operative for the Mayday resistance.

The legacy comes through two key figures. Ann Dowd returns as Aunt Lydia, and Elisabeth Moss returns as June. The series earned an 88 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Chase Infiniti received an Emmy nomination for lead actress in a drama, and Hulu renewed it for a second season in May 2026.

Scrubs

ABC’s Scrubs revival premiered on February 25, 2026, and ran nine episodes. Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalke returned, along with John C. McGinley and Judy Reyes. J.D. is now a concierge doctor, divorced from Elliot, who comes back to Sacred Heart Hospital, where Dr. Cox appoints him Chief of Medicine. A group of five new interns joins the cast, which puts J.D. in charge of the next class. Critics gave the revival an 89 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and ABC renewed it for an eleventh season on April 30.

What Makes a Handoff Work

Look at how these shows are built, and a few patterns appear.

There is almost always a bridge character. The Doctor teaches the Starfleet cadets. Dwayne is the provost at Hillman. Dr. Cox puts J.D. in charge of a new class of interns. Aunt Lydia guides the story across a generation of Gilead. That kind of character gives viewers a familiar face to follow into unfamiliar territory.

The new generation also needs its own problem. Caleb is looking for his mother. Deborah is at Hillman partly because of past academic trouble. Agnes is learning who she really is. Leah is discovering her grandparents. In each case, the new character’s story is not a retelling of the old one, and that is why the best of these shows feel like more than a legacy visit.

The old characters cannot be flattened to make room. The strongest critique of A Different World was that two beloved characters looked smaller than they used to. A bridge character who exists only to hand off the story, and who loses what made them lovable, can leave both new and old fans cold.

And audiences need time. The original Next Generation took a season to find itself, and Starfleet Academy got two. That ’90s Show got two as well. Meanwhile, A Different World and Scrubs are heading into more seasons, and The Testaments is too. This is still the early part of the era, and the way these shows land will decide how many more get made.

What Comes Next

The trend is not slowing down. Nickelodeon and Avatar Studios have announced Avatar: Seven Havens, an animated series that follows a young Earthbender who discovers she is the new Avatar, in an era after The Legend of Korra when the Avatar is seen as a destroyer instead of a savior. It is planned as 26 half hour episodes over two seasons, with Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko involved. No release window was given at the time of the announcement.

That is the real test of the next generation era. These shows ask us to care about people we have not met yet, because of people we already love. Done well, it can make a franchise feel alive again. Done poorly, it is a nostalgia exercise with a younger cast. The best ones, like the original Next Generation, earn the new crew a place on the bridge.

Which legacy show do you want to see hand its story to a new generation next, and which one should stay exactly as it is? Let us know in the comments.