Yahoo News Why the Magnum PI reboot gender-swapped a key character
Magnum PI is returning to TV screens after 30 years, with a new reboot fronted by a new leading man – Jay Hernandez, stepping in for Tom Selleck.
One other notable change in the new CBS series – besides Hernandez's lack of facial hair – is that Thomas Magnum's trusty British ally Higgins is now a woman; originally portrayed by John Hillerman, Perdita Weeks will now be tackling the role.
Speaking to Digital Spy and other media, showrunner Peter Lenkov and executive producer Eric Guggenheim said that while the "tone" of the Magnum reboot is "very similar to the original show", adding a "female voice" to the series was "first and foremost" among the tweaks they wanted to make.
"We loved the original show, so we want to honour the original show, and use the DNA of the original," said Guggenheim. "But it's got to stand on its own at the same time, and we felt like this was a way to do that, to differentiate it from the original."
Weeks suggested that the new Magnum and Higgins will have "a very fiery rapport", with "an element of 'Will they / Won't they?'" to their relationship. "I'm really interested to see how the fans feel about the relationship," she said. "It is so different.
"It was a huge part of the [original] show, but adding that female / male dynamic... me personally, I think it's more interesting."
"Adding a female perspective to the show was really important to us," emphasised Guggenheim. "We have daughters, and that was something that the original show lacked."
Lenkov said: "I talk to a lot of women who didn't watch the original show because the trailers always made it seem like it was [just] for guys. It's funny, because when you watch the original, it wasn't 'a guy's show', it just felt that way based on the selling of it.
"But we felt like you can't do a show in 2018 and not have a female voice in there."
Keen to reassure concerned fans of the original series, Lenkov insisted that his and Guggenheim's adaptation isn't "a money-grab" and that they didn't want to revive Magnum PI simply because reboots are "in vogue".
"We'd been talking about it for a very long time, pre-Hawaii Five-0," he said. "We are doing it for the right reasons, [and want] to protect what was really one of the crown jewels of CBS."
Magnum PI begins September 24 at 9pm on CBS.
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