Tim Allen says a Home Improvement revival is stuck over “personality problems” with the three Taylor boys, leaving the long-discussed project on pause even as some of the original cast has shown interest in returning. Allen said the idea keeps circling back, but it has not moved beyond conversation.
That matters now because fans have spent years wondering whether the 1990s sitcom could come back, and Allen’s latest comments explain why nothing has happened yet. Home Improvement ran from 1991 for eight seasons and built its appeal around Allen as a goofy, fun-loving dad to three sons, a setup that made the Taylor family the core of the show’s identity.
Allen said the revival keeps getting slowed by cast friction. “They keep talking about how it could move forward, but they get stuck [because] there are some personality problems right now with the boys,” he said, adding, “They’ve got their own issues.” He also said, “I always thought it would be cool if it was a story about them,” but that, “That’s a little challenging right now, to put it mildly.”
The hold-up appears to be less about interest than logistics. Patricia Richardson has indicated a willingness to return as Jill Taylor, and Allen has already reunited with her, Richard Karn and Debbe Dunning in Season 2 of Shifting Gears. But participation from Brad, Randy and Mark has not been secured, and that gap has kept the reboot from taking shape.
Zachary Ty Bryan, 44, is one of the biggest obstacles. He is serving a 16-month sentence in a California jail stemming from a 2024 DUI arrest, has faced multiple DUI and domestic violence charges in recent years, and will later serve a 19-month sentence in Oregon after violating probation tied to a 2023 domestic violence conviction. He is due to be extradited to Oklahoma to face sentencing for the 2024 DUI case after his release in California.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas has been largely absent from acting for years. His last acting credit was a voice role in Batman Beyond in 1999, though he did appear in four episodes of Last Man Standing between 2013 and 2015 and directed three episodes of the series. Sources also said Thomas was asked to appear in Shifting Gears but ultimately declined.
The broader problem is that the revival depends on reuniting a family that no longer exists in the same form. Earl Hindman, who played Wilson Wilson, died in 2003, and Taran Noah Smith has also not been acting for many years. For now, the project remains in the same place Allen described: talked about, revisited, and stalled. Until the Taylor boys are actually on board, there is no reboot to move ahead with.
