‘One Tree Hill’ Alum Jana Kramer Is Open To Return For Sequel Series

Jana Kramer, who played Alex Dupré on the final three seasons of CW’s One Tree Hill, is hoping to reprise her role in the upcoming sequel series that is in development at Netflix.

Original stars Sophia Bush and Hilarie Burton are set to executive produce and reprise their roles of Brooke Davis and Peyton Sawyer, respectively, in the sequel series from writer/executive producer Becky Hartman Edwards and Warner Bros. TV.

“They’re gonna get their footing of the show but I think they’re open to bringing back characters,” Kramer told E! News. “So, I hope I get the opportunity, it sounds like there’s a window for that. I’m ready if it comes calling.”

Kramer told E! she loves “watching rebooted shows and then seeing old characters come back” as she reflected on what she thinks her character would be doing now, 12 years after fans last saw her.

“I feel like there’s so much of Alex that’s a piece of me,” she said. “Though I didn’t go through some of the things she went through, I’ve had harder times, too. So, I want to believe that she’s done some healing work but she’s still who she is, she still causes a little bit of a stir.”

Kramer previously teased her potential involvement in the sequel on her Whine Down podcast, revealing she’d already “spoken to Hilarie about it, about Alex making an appearance” in the reboot. “We had discussed it before the news broke… It was probably a month or so ago,” she said, adding “I think their intention is to bring back people that make sense. And Hilarie was like, ‘I never got to meet Alex, so it’d be fun to have us meet.’ And I’m like, ‘I would love that. Sign me up'”.

Jensen Ackles and Danneel Ackles also will executive produce the sequel through their Chaos Machine banner with the latter in talks to return as Rachel Scott. Emily Moss Wilson is a producer.

Created by Mark Schwahn, One Tree Hill premiered in 2003 and ran for nine seasons on The WB network and its successor the CW. The sequel is said to take place 20 years later following best friends Brooke and Peyton who are now parents to teens and facing challenges not unfamiliar to what they tackled in the original series like love, insecurities and grief, we understand.

The coming-of-age drama also starred Chad Michael Murray, James Lafferty, Bethany Joy Lenz, Austin Nichols, Antwon Tanner and Paul Johansson, among others. 

Set in a fictional North Carolina town, One Tree Hill begins as a story about two half-brothers, Lucas (Murray) and Nathan (Lafferty), with a strained relationship forced to navigate high school together whose social circles eventually intersect. As the show progressed, the story opened to follow all of the friendships, romance, heartbreak and familial tensions in Tree Hill, through the lens of the teens. Brooke Davis, Peyton Sawyer and Haley James Scott (Lenz) often anchored the storyline.