Rebooting a beloved movie or show always comes with high expectations, and the same is true with BET's Boomerang. So what does the original Boomerang cast think of the TV show? One of them is actually involved in the show's production.
Halle Berry, who played Angela in the original 1992 version of Boomerang, said she wasn't initially interested in the idea of bringing the story back. In fact, when Lena Waithe approached her about it, she nearly shot her down. “She came to me and she said, ‘Hal, I really want to redo “Boomerang” and I was like, no,” Berry said at the Boomerang premiere event earlier this year, according to Variety. "At first I was like, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ I didn’t think it was a good idea. I love this movie so much. I know how many people love this movie so much. I was like, ‘I don’t know if there’s a way we can do this, Lena.'"
But she wasn't on that path for long — Berry said Waithe wasn't going to take "no" for an answer, and after some discussion, Berry came on board with the modernized take on the classic, serving as an executive producer. And, she might even show up onscreen. “You might see me at some point. I can’t speak for anybody else in the cast, I can only speak for myself,” said at a TCA event, per Entertainment Weekly. “I am so proud of this show, and you might see me. You might see me, for sure.
It doesn't appear that any other original Boomerang cast members, like Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens, Chris Rock and Grace Jones have made any public statements about the reboot, but Waithe certainly has all the alumni in mind when she's at work behind the camera. She also said she hopes some of them might "“see it and they’ll say, ‘Oh, this is so dope. I’m gonna make sure I’m on Season 2,'" according to The Wrap.
“That’s a goal,” Waithe said, per the outlet. “I was like, ‘I wanna make something so good that Eddie is like, 'Alright, yeah, that’s lit, that’s lit.' But I hope he knows that to me it’s, like, we wanted to be — we wanted LeBron James to be to the series what Michael Jordan is to the movie. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, we may not be that, but you can see in the way we move, in the way we shoot, in the way we run, we’re very inspired by those that came before us."
The project is meaningful to Waithe not because of the respect and love she has for Boomerang's first version, but also because she thinks reboots are a way of paying homage to things that were meaningful and formative.
"I’m remaking Boomerang, [LeBron James is] remaking House Party. We’re doing it because these things had such an effect on our spirits and our souls. Maybe somebody will wanna remake [Donald Glover’s] Atlanta, will wanna remake The Chi or something," Waithe told Entertainment Weekly. "You know, at the end of the day it’s like, we want our work to have that much impact. I want to do that for the next generation."
Maybe as Boomerang's run continues, more of the former cast will come forward like Waithe hopes. It'd certainly give fans of the 1992 film a nostalgic throwback to the movie that so many loved.
