Disney Is Hinting at Reviving a Beloved Series It Really Shouldn’t
It’s an interesting time to be a Gravity Falls fan right now. All of a sudden, there’s talk of reviving the beloved cult animated series. Executive Vice President of Television Animation and Disney Branded Television, Meredith Roberts, said as much in a new interview with The Direct.
“You know, we’re in conversations with Alex. He’s about to publish a book with Disney on his project. And we also do some shorts. So never say never.”
The book being referred to is The Book of Bill, which is “written by” Bill Cipher, the triangle-shaped villain of the show. It’s due out in July 2024 and it looks fantastic! But, and I accept this opinion may not be held by everyone, the prospect of more Gravity Falls is not fantastic. There one hundred percent does not need to be any more.
Gravity Falls already had the perfect ending
Gravity Falls is one of the best things Disney put out in the last decade. It was created by Alex Hirsch (who had plenty of issues with Disney management during the production of the show) and told a thrilling, touching story about sibling relationships and growing up. But here’s the thing: It ended perfectly. Bill was defeated, the main characters were able to find closure and happiness, and twins Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal) moved on to the new, more mundane adventure of teenagerhood. If the show were to be brought back, the happy ending would have to be retconned. (I call this “Star Wars Sequelitus.”) And who would want that?
Even Alex Hirsch doesn’t seem to want that. He’s always been adamant that the series ended exactly the way he wanted it to. When the show reached its end in 2015, he published a Tumblr post stating, “I always designed Gravity Falls to be a finite series about one epic summer—a series with a beginning, middle, and end. There are so many shows that go on endlessly until they lose their original spark, or mysteries that are cancelled before they ever get a chance to payoff.”
And unfortunately Disney has a nasty habit of, well, making things go on endlessly until they lose their original spark. Just look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe! I’m happy to get more Gravity Falls content in the form of books and perhaps the odd short, but I definitely don’t want the main story to continue. It’s done. Hirsch summed it up best in his 2015 post: “Gravity Falls was never meant to be a series that goes on and on forever. It’s meant to be an exploration of the experience of summer, and in a larger sense a story about childhood itself. The fact that childhood ends is exactly what makes it so precious—and why you should cherish it while it lasts.”
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