Fox has ordered a new version of Highway to Heaven for its 2027-28 season, bringing back the title that once helped define network television’s idea of faith, mercy and second chances. The Highway To Heaven Fox Reboot is being developed by Jason Katims, Amblin Television and Michael Landon Productions.
The new series will center on a probationary angel sent to Earth to help people and earn his wings. Katims will serve as showrunner and executive producer, alongside Amblin’s Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey and Todd Cohen, as well as Mark Itkin. Cindy Landon and Wayne Lepoff are executive producing for Michael Landon Productions.
The order lands 42 years after the original Highway to Heaven premiered on NBC in 1984 and ran through 1989. Michael Landon created the series and starred as Jonathan Smith, with Victor French as Mark Gordon. Fox is betting that the premise still has room to move: a heavenly helper sent into human trouble, where kindness matters and the smallest choices can change what comes next.
Katims said he was excited by the challenge of putting a contemporary lens on the classic tale, and said the idea of telling a grounded, human story about an angel felt immediately emotional and fun to him. He added that he liked the chance to go outside his comfort zone and tell a tale about someone trying to do better as an angel than he did as a man.
Michael Thorn said Fox was building on Highway to Heaven’s timeless legacy of transformation and optimism with a team that makes the story feel deeply relevant and relatable. Cindy Landon said the series has always been about connection, compassion and the idea that small acts can have big ripple effects and make a lasting difference, and that she was proud to help carry Michael’s legacy forward with Fox and Amblin at what she called just the right moment. Fox has been reviving other classic TV properties too, including Baywatch, and the new Highway to Heaven will follow the same broad strategy: take a familiar brand, keep the emotional core and update it for a new audience.
What Fox is really buying is not nostalgia alone but a version of the old promise that still feels usable now. If the reboot keeps the original’s warmth without sanding away the moral stakes, it has a ready-made identity. If it does not, the title will be doing more work than the story.
