It has been over 20 years since Josh Schwartz’s The O.C. ruled the airwaves, but if you’re still missing that California sunshine and high-stakes drama, there is news on the horizon that might make you feel like it’s 2003 all over again. While speaking with KIIS 1065, Ben McKenzie, who starred as the troubled yet good-hearted Ryan Atwood on Fox’s hit teen drama, revealed he would be open to a potential return to Newport Beach.
“I don’t know that there has ever been serious talks, but I’d be up for it, sure,” McKenzie shared during the interview. “Yeah, I think so, under the right circumstances. It was a great show. We had a great time. I learned a lot. I was so young, we were all young.”
He didn’t stop there, offering a simple call to action for fans: “Let’s make it happen.”
A Lasting Legacy Across Generations
Premiering in 2003, The O.C. follows Ryan (McKenzie) after he is taken in by public defender Sandy Cohen and his affluent family. Transported from Chino to the gated enclave of Newport Beach, California, Ryan quickly becomes embroiled in the lives, secrets, and scandals of Orange County’s upper class. The defining coming-of-age series also launched the careers of Mischa Barton, Adam Brody, Peter Gallagher, Kelly Rowan, Rachel Bilson, and Melinda Clarke.
Reflecting on the show’s lasting legacy and cross-generational appeal, McKenzie noted that a whole new audience has discovered the series more than two decades later. “I now have kids come up to me, teenagers, and they talk about what a fan they are of the show. ‘You weren’t even alive when it came out,’ McKenzie said. “They watch it with their parents.”
Life After Chino and Gotham
Since hanging up Ryan’s leather jacket, McKenzie has kept remarkably busy. Most TV fans know him best for his five-season run as GCPD Detective James Gordon in Fox’s Gotham (2014–2019), where he went toe-to-toe with Gotham City’s most notorious rogues and mobsters. On the big screen, McKenzie recently appeared in the near-silent action thriller Motor City, which stars Alan Ritchson as John Miller, an innocent man framed by a local gangster who sets out on a ruthless campaign of revenge. Up next, McKenzie is set to star in Myron Bolitar, an eight-episode thriller series following a former NBA player turned high-stakes sports agent who risks everything to save his clients. The stacked cast includes KJ Apa, Colin Woodell, Diane Guerrero, Jabari Banks, and Chloe Fineman.
Are you a fan of The O.C.? Should the original cast reunite for a proper sequel series or reboot? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
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