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This story contains spoilers for King of the Hill Season 15.
Hulu's second season of the King of the Hill revival, which serves as the 15th overall for the animated series, has finally arrived on Hulu. It includes what may be the last-ever appearance of the fan-favorite John Redcorn character, though the door will remain open for a possible return in future seasons.
In Season 15, John Redcorn pops up in the episode, "The Best Little Marriage in Texas." The last season revealed that John Redcorn and Nancy Gribble had resumed their affair. In his only Season 15 episode, John Redcorn is told by Nancy that her "headaches" have ended, her special way of telling him she needed she could no longer continue seeing him. As the tears start to flow, John Redcorn drives off after first telling Nancy, "Really? Okay, let me know when they come back."
John Redcorn's Exit May or May Not Be Permanent
Voice actor Jonathan Joss returned to voice John Redcorn in the King of the Hill revival. Last year, he was fatally shot after recording lines for the character. His Season 15 appearance marks the final performance for Joss. In a new interview with Polygon, showrunner Saladin Patterson confirmed that John Redcorn wasn't written out of the series due to Joss' passing. It was already the plan to write him out for the rest of Season 15, but while remaining open to potentially bringing him back later on.
“Jonathan Joss' passing was tragic in so many different ways. It caught us off guard and he was such a sweet, fragile soul,” Patterson said. "The truth of the matter is, we had broken and completed that episode well before he passed away. It feels like it's a reaction to it, but that episode was almost in the can when he passed away.”
He continued, “We had purposefully left it open-ended. In our minds, we could always bring John Redcorn back anytime we wanted to.”
Recasting the Role Is a Possibility for Future Seasons
Patterson clarified that John Redcorn was phased out of Season 15 to allow the writers to further explore Dale and Nancy's complicated marriage at this point in their lives. It made the most sense to "at least [put] a pause on the John Redcorn affair." Given what has since happened with Joss, the King of the Hill team hasn't decided if John Redcorn will permanently remain written out of the series. Patterson hinted that if there's a strong enough story related to bringing the character back, they'll recast him to do so.
“Now that [Jonathan Joss has] passed away, we have to decide if that pause is going to be permanent or not,” Patterson clarified. “It's still open-ended, similar to the Luanne and Lucky of it all. If stories lend themselves to be better served by reintroducing that relationship, we're certainly open to doing it. We then have to deal with the real-life challenge of casting. Jonathan Joss was not the original John Redcorn. He's the second John Redcorn, so there may not be as much preciousness to that decision, but it's still something that we don't take lightly.”
Johnny Hardwick, the longtime voice of Dale, also died while the King of the Hill revival was in development. His role was recast with Toby Huss, who voiced Cotton Hill and Kahn on the original show. Luanne and Lucky voice actors Brittany Murphy and Tom Petty also passed away after the original series ended, and their characters have not been featured at all in the revival. Their current whereabouts in the timeline of Seasons 14 and 15 has not been officially revealed.
King of the Hill is streaming on Hulu.
