Lea Michele Returning for ‘Glee’ Reboot as Rachel Berry (EXCLUSIVE)

You can’t rain on her parade. Lea Michele is returning to the role that launched her career in Disney+ and Hulu’s reboot of “Glee,” the Ryan Murphy-created musical dramedy series. Variety has confirmed the news with multiple sources. “She’s in,” one source said. “It’s still early-ish days, but it feels good and we’re happy to get the band back together,” said another. Reps for Michele and Murphy did not comment for this story. Popular on Variety For six seasons on Fox from 2009 to 2015, Michele led the cast of “Glee” as the precocious, arrogant and mega-talented Rachel Berry, one of the original members of the McKinley High School glee club. Over the course of the series, Rachel frequently alienated her peers with her ambition; while she stopped at nothing to pursue her dreams on Broadway and beyond, she privately struggled with her reputation and personal relationships. She was in and on-and-off relationship with football player and glee club peer Finn Hudson — played by Cory Monteith, whom Michele dated in real life — before the actor’s death. Michele was already a seasoned Broadway performer before “Glee,” having appeared in “Les Misérables,” “Ragtime,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and most notably “Spring Awakening” opposite Jonathan Groff. After “Glee,” she had smaller roles in several film and TV projects, including another Murphy collaboration in Fox’s “Scream Queens” (2015-2016). She has enjoyed a career renaissance since 2022, when she joined the cast of Broadway’s “Funny Girl” revival as Fanny Brice — which garnered widespread attention not only for her acclaimed performance but for its resonance with her “Glee” character, who dreamed of playing Fanny for years before finally nabbing the role and later leaving it behind. Michele was nominated for an Emmy and two Golden Globes for her work on “Glee.” “I’ve been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members,” Murphy recently said in recent interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” in which he confirmed that he’d just written a “Glee” reboot script with collaborators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. “It’s very sweet, and they all had a lot of questions, but they all were very enthusiastic about the idea.” Just weeks earlier, Michele told “E! News” that she’d be happy to join a “Glee” reboot. “I love ‘Glee.’ I will always love ‘Glee,’” she said. “I love Ryan Murphy. It just holds such a special place in my heart for me… I will follow Ryan wherever he goes.” In the series finale, which aired March 20, 2015, Rachel wins a Tony, marries Jesse St. James (played by Michele’s real-life best friend Groff) and becomes a surrogate mother for Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) and Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss).