In an age of reboots, prequels, sequels, and spinoffs,
Bryton James has a novel plan for bringing
Family Matters back: switching up the medium.
The actor, who spent eight seasons playing adolescent Richie Crawford on the beloved sitcom, tells
Entertainment Weekly exclusively that he's "had an idea to take the show and turn it into an animated series," which would involve "taking the old episodes and modernizing them and kind of starting from scratch for the new generation."
James — who
recently crossed over from
The Young and the Restless to the soap's new sister series
Beyond the Gates — says that he "got pretty far along" with his animated
Family Matters idea, including getting "a production company in line to finance" and bringing "everybody on board," even breakout star
Jaleel White.
But, he adds, "it's sitting in
Warner Bros.' hands right now… That plan is still kind of floating around out there, and I'm still trying to pursue it."
A source familiar with Warner Bros. Animation tells EW that they are aware of James' interest in doing a reboot but the project has not moved beyond that.