‘King of the Hill’ Stars on Voice Cast Changes, Late Brittany Murphy

For King of the Hill’s Stephen Root, who voices the titular Hank Hill’s long-time friend and neighbor Bill Dauterive, the decision to come back for a reboot of the Mike Judge and Greg Daniels co-created series 15 years after Fox canceled it was “a no-brainer.”

“Mostly, and it always is with these things, it was about the writing. Is the writing really good? And are these people you want to work with? A big yes to all of that,” he tells The Hollywood Reporter while talking about the animated comedy’s return alongside two of his co-stars. “At that point, it was 13 years of family, and we are one big family. We couldn’t wait to get back with each other.”

“I feel the same way,” adds Toby Huss, who voiced Hank’s father Cotton Hill, while reflecting on his decision to join the original series and reboot. “Initially it was knowing Mike from the MTV days back in the mid-’90s and him doing this thing that I went, ‘Whatever he’s involved in is going to be great.’ It was not a question in my mind. There were no scrutinizing characters or scripts. Just, a ‘Whatever you want me to do, let’s go.’”

The series’ return (all new 10 episodes dropped Aug. 4 via Hulu) picks up where the original left off, following the daily lives and shenanigans of the Hill Family and their oftentimes odd and quirky friends and neighbors from the fictional community of Arlen, Texas. It was a return in the making almost as half as long as the series had been off the air. 

“It was absolutely thrilling to know that we were coming back finally and that it was a real thing because Kathy [Najimy, the voice of Peggy Hill] kept whipping us into a frenzy about it for about four years, and it wasn’t happening,” says Lauren Tom, the voice of Connie and Minh Souphanousinphone. “It was ‘Ah, crying wolf,’ and then it happened. So sometimes that’s even better.”

Since its original run, the co-creators — also writers tied to era-defining adult animated series like Beavis and Butthead (Judge) and The Simpsons (Daniels) — have carved out their own respective comedy empires as well as a shared one: Bandera Entertainment. Its work has dominated TV and permeated pop culture and comedy for more than two decades, a feat for countless reasons. When it comes to King of the Hill, that success came from delivering a different take on the animated sitcom. 

“King of the Hill was one of the first animated shows that really based their characters in reality so it wasn’t situational humor. It wasn’t that joke, joke, joke or setup, setup, setup, joke. The humor was coming from the characters and their traits. It was also being able to have the camera take its time. It’s actually slower, where you can see a reaction a character might have. Now sometimes when I audition for things, I’ll say, ‘Do you want King of the Hill-style or are we going for a broader cartoon?’ And they know exactly what I mean,” Tom explains. “We haven’t lost that sense of authenticity from the old one to the new one. That’s still what gives us our special sauce.”

With its return, the series that debuted in 1997 will arrive at a time when TV, pop culture and comedy are all in notably different places. “We’re going to have to wait and see what a drop is going to look like for us, because that’s never happened,” says Root about the show’s move from a 20-plus episode weekly release model on broadcast to a 10-episode binge format on streaming. “But I’m really interested to see how people gobble up 10 episodes and then react to that.” 

Huss, who once voiced Kahn Souphanousinphone Sr. — Hank Hill’s Laotian American neighbor — is also part of a modern industry shift away from casting actors who don’t match the ethnicity or race of their character. At the same time he stepped back from that role (now voiced by Ronny Chieng), he stepped into the role of Hill’s conspiracy theorist friend and neighbor Dale Gribble, following the death of Johnny Hardwick during production. 

“I liked the fact that we’re asking these questions now culturally that we didn’t ask back in ‘97, or if we did, they weren’t very loud. Now we are, and I think it’s a much better place to be as a society and as a culture to ask and then give some answers. And if the answers mean you have to make some corrections, let’s make some corrections,” Huss says. “In terms of Dale, I think I did one read through where I read Dale in the room, and they just thought, ‘Well, hell, I guess Toby is close enough. Let’s let him do it.’ But it was a really sweet and humbling thing for them to ask.”

“We were thrilled as a cast that it was one of our own, that it was going to stay in the family,” says Tom, with Root adding: “Nobody could replace Johnny, but Toby could further Johnny’s wonderfulness.”

Alongside Hardwick’s passing, the series return arrives now also without several original voice actors, including Brittany Murphy, Tom Petty, Dennis Burkley and Jonathan Joss — the latter of whom completed his voice work for the season before his own death this past June. 

“We miss all of them. We miss all of our departed friends,” Root reflects when asked about Joss and others’ passing. “Brittany was always a joy. She was the kind of person that would take a half an hour to write a note to a fan. She was really happy to do that. It was fantastic. We miss that. We missed the loquacious Tom Petty, who was just so laid back and wonderful. Dennis Berkeley as our Principal [Moss]. We miss all of them so much, but we’re really excited that we’re in a new generation and a new way to look at things in this show.”

“I’m glad we had each other to just heal through that because it’s like losing a family member,” Tom adds. 

The show will handle the absence of specific characters differently, with on-screen credit tributes to Hardwick and Joss specifically. They help honor not just the original voices but what the original series fans loved. Yet, as Root notes, the series does move on, delivering a King of the Hill for a new generation. Part of that approach sees characters like Connie aged up, with Tom noting that she made slight tweaks to the now young woman’s voice to go alongside her now young adult storylines. “We had to play around a little bit with it because my character is only 12 back then,” she explains. “So I just did something that was closer to my own voice.”

While some characters like Connie and Bobby literally grow, true to the show’s comedic approach, King of the Hill’s return underscores how whether in real or animated life, some people never change. “I’m proud to say that Saladin [K. Patterson], our brilliant new showrunner, and all the great new writers that we have, didn’t change Bill at all,” says Root, to laughs from his co-stars. 

Within these character treatments is the show’s ultimate balancing act — staying true to itself while also delivering something that makes sense over 20 years after it originally debuted. King of the Hill first arrived at a time when mainstream comedy could be more crude and sitcoms “about nothing” set in New York reigned supreme. In 2025, with shifts in not just how audiences watch TV, but the way our communities exist and our collective sense of humor, a fan desire to see where the Hills themselves would be in the modern era meant it was always going to be different in ways. 

All three actors champion the series’ new leader, showrunner Saladin K. Patterson, for successfully moving the show into the present day. “I love Saladin,” Tom says. “They made a perfect choice because he is someone who has that bullshit detector, too. Everything’s about authenticity, and that’s what’s perfect about the teaming of him with us now. He would come up with ideas that could make things a little bit funnier, but also, he always made me feel like he trusted me and that I knew what I was doing. It was all so positive.”

Adds Root, “What’s great about him is that he was fan. To see him at a table read for maybe the first or the second episode go, ‘I love this!’ — he felt like family right away. And to have a new sensibility come in and juice up this cast — which is great because we’ve got new people in the show now and new characters in the show — was just joyous.”

Huss continues, “He’s really smart, and he moved into this world with a lot of respect for the world and for the comedy that had been laid down for all those years.He completely understood it, he built on it, and he’s made it richer and better.”

King of the Hill is now streaming on Hulu. Read THR’s interview with showrunner Saladin K. Patterson.