23 Years Later, Rachel Bilson Is Officially Ready to Return to ‘The O.C.’

Rachel Bilson has built an entire career as a queen of comfort television. She burst onto the scene as part of the iconic Fox teen drama The O.C. in 2003, turning the role of Summer Roberts into a fixture of the series and one half of one of the show’s core romantic relationships with Adam Brody‘s Seth Cohen. Then, over on The CW in 2011, she began her second defining four-season run in the cozy confines of Hart of Dixie, playing Dr. Zoe Hart as she navigates life in the idyllic little Southern town of Bluebell, Alabama. Although very different shows set in very different parts of the country in separate eras, they both represented a similar, wide-ranging, and addictive brand of programming that is still going strong today, from Sterling Point to Outer Banks.

Another thing the two have in common, however, is that the interest in a reboot or revival is high. This past September, Ben McKenzie expressed renewed interest in reprising his role as Chino teen Ryan Atwood in an O.C. reboot revisiting the old friends now that they’ve grown and Ryan may have taken another teen under his wing as Peter Gallagher‘s Sandy did for him. “I don’t know that there has ever been serious talks, but I’d be up for it, sure,” he said in an appearance on KIIS 1065. Bilson, herself, has also been open about her willingness to return to the comforts of Bluebell, telling People at Pluto TV’s Hart of Dixie 15th anniversary celebration over the summer that she’s always open to the idea because of how much of a “feel-good show” it was to watch and make. Of the two, though, she has an apparent preference for which she’d like to revisit most.

Bilson recently joined Perri Nemiroff for an episode of Collider Ladies Night in anticipation of her upcoming holiday slasher flick Christmas at the Kringles, where the topic of reviving the two shows arose. “I don’t know if I can think storylines so much as I can think two things,” she said when considering what reboots could entail. For the Orange County-set series, she believes, the reason to return comes down to nostalgia and escapism in a different era. However, Bilson personally sees a clear place for Hart of Dixie in the modern day, when similar cozy series like Virgin River and Sullivan’s Crossing are thriving, and the demand for places like Bluebell on-screen is skyrocketing.

“The O.C., I think people love nostalgia, especially right now. Like, bring us back to the early aughts, right, and revisiting that era. But I think for Hart of Dixie, it’s such a feel-good, cozy show. I’m a big fan of cozy, so I think just having a place to escape, like Bluebell, sounds wonderful right about now.”

“The O.C., I think people love nostalgia, especially right now. Like, bring us back to the early aughts, right, and revisiting that era. But I think for Hart of Dixie, it’s such a feel-good, cozy show. I’m a big fan of cozy, so I think just having a place to escape, like Bluebell, sounds wonderful right about now.”

Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely
different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you
would be having within a week.

You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts
works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war
so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting
you.

• You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within
  about five minutes and has never stopped.
• This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every
  single person in your life would be.
• The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you
  do with things you love.
• The new HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the
  arguments are about to start all over again.

You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where
somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth
rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.

• You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the visible part of something
  enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it.
• This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly
  alarming, and it has good reasons for that.
• Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all,
  which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes.
• Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make
  that argument.

You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one
where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of
it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.

• You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year old to a
  grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that.
• Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly
  1980 with no sign of resolution.
• The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score
  and the look of a used and dented galaxy.
• You would be first in the queue, in costume, with strong opinions and a genuinely good
  time.

You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the
argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in
space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.

• You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major
  franchise still willing to say the future might be better.
• The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that
  makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else.
• Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is
  appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar.
• You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you
  will always find somebody willing to have it.

What to Expect From Bilson’s Return to Film in ‘Christmas at the Kringles’

• Image via FOX

• Image via The CW

• Image via Fox

• Image via The CW

Image via FOX

Image via The CW

Image via Fox

Image via The CW

Bilson has been more sparing on-screen in the 2020s, appearing in an episode of Accused in 2023 and more recently joining Season 2 of the Scrubs revival as JD’s (Zach Braff) new love interest. Christmas at the Kringles, however, represents her first theatrical role in over a decade after a small appearance in American Heist. The holiday horror comedy includes her as part of the Severson family, who have just begun a fresh start in a seemingly peaceful suburban neighborhood, until they meet the odd clan next door. The Kringles initially seem a little bizarre due to celebrating Christmas year-round, but are nonetheless charming. However, Mark Severson (Ron Livingston) soon learns of their true evil intentions to indoctrinate his loved ones, leading him to team with a rogue, drunken Santa (Rob Riggle) for a risky, action-packed rescue mission.

Also starring Thomas Lennon, Arden Myrin, Beverley D’Angelo, and Bilson’s Scrubs co-star Donald Faison, Christmas at the Kringles is directed by Kevin Lewis and penned by Zack Imbrogno and arrives in theaters this Friday, October 30. The O.C. is available to stream on Hulu, while Hart of Dixie can be watched on Pluto TV. Stay tuned at Collider for more, you can watch Bilson’s full episode of Collider Ladies Night above.

Hart of Dixie