Amber Riley on bringing back her most popular onscreen role

Glee alum, Amber Riley, opened up about her widely popular role as Mercedes Jones in Fox's musical comedy-drama show, on the latest episode of Monét X Change’s podcast, Monét Talks. Riley's role as Mercedes in Glee became one of the most loved characters and also turned out to be hugely popular. Glee, with six successful seasons, ran from 2009 to 2015. Each season was a hit as it garnered praise from the audience as well as from the critics. 

Created by Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan, and Brad Falchuk, Fox's musical comedy-drama show, Glee, follows a cheerful and confident high-school teacher who tries to change the school's show choir club with the help of a bunch of eccentric students. The group of misfits somehow gets convinced to join the club so that they forget the cruel realities of high school. The 38-year-old Riley is tired of being asked the same old question whether she would return to a new version of Glee.

Interestingly, the Lawrence Olivier Award-winning actress has now reached a point where she already has an answer prepared for that question, and it's quite simple. During the Monét Talks podcast, when Monét X Change asked her the same question, Riley's initial answer, while she laughed, was a short "No". 

In a hypothetical question, Amber Riley was asked if she would agree to a new version of Glee if she were to get $40 million for three seasons, would she be interested? Well, her answer to that hypothetical question remains the same. While the Single Black Female actress was hell-bent on her decision, she took the opportunity to explain herself and said:

"I just feel like what we did was so phenomenal, I don’t want to risk trying to reinvent the wheel. Now if they redo it, I think that's amazing, because there are so many kids now that are just now discovering Glee, and so I think that that'd be really dope. But, you know, we lost cast members. I just feel like the chemistry, that formula, was so specific, and it's changed now, so I don't know if it would be as effective."

Riley, while explaining why she doesn't want to be a part of the reinvented version of the show, talked about how several cast members of Glee have lost their lives in different ways over the years. According to Entertainment Weekly, Cory Monteith, who played the role of Finn Hudson, unfortunately, overdosed on drugs and died on July 13, 2023. Mark Salling, who was Puck on the show, was charged with possession of child pornography. He committed suicide in January 2018. Even Naya Rivera, who played the character of the exciting cheerleader, Santana Lopez, drowned in a boating accident in July 2020.

However, Riley, who has made it clear that she is not interested in a reinvented version of her hit show, Glee, hints that she would be all in if her character Mercedes gets a spinoff show of her own.