In a virtual reunion with the ER cast, George Clooney got candid about whether or not he would make an appearance in a revival series based on the original show, if one ever happened.
The cast members reunited recently on an episode of Stars in the House to help Waterkeeper Alliance, a no-profit organization that aims to supply clean water to communities around the world.
"I don't know," Clooney said when prompted about the possibility. "The hardest part is that when you look at the show and consistently over so many years — it would be hard to say that you could do it at the level that we did it," he said. "I'm not sure that that's available."
The 59-year-old actor revealed that he’s been watching the series with his wife, Amal Clooney. He added that recreating the show and giving it a modern twist was definitely a good idea because the series was “great television.”
"This is better than anything I see in film or anywhere. This is stunning. It's stunning work," he said. "I felt that way about a lot of episodes I watched. I'm not sure [about a reboot]… it's hard to catch lightning again."
Julianna Margulies, who played Carol Hathaway on the show, agreed with Clooney. "You can't capture lightning in a bottle twice. I think you have to leave what was so beautiful and move on because it just feels cheap…it would cheapen it for me."
Most of the cast agreed that a reboot wouldn’t be such a good idea. However, Ming-Na Wen, who played Jing-Mei Chen, said she’d love to do a reboot just so she could with the whole cast again.
"I would love to reboot only to be able to hang out with this group of people, the talent," she said.
"As you get older, the appreciation level and the awareness is so much greater. Just such great fortune," she added. "I would love to have been, even now…just even this, surrounded by these people."
The NBC medical drama ER ran for 15 seasons, airing on the network from 1994 to 2009. The show quickly became one of the most highest-rated television shows of the time.
ER was created by screenwriter Michael Crichton. When he passed away in 2008, a year before the show ended, Crichton’s wife said she supported the idea of a revival series.
"I would so love to have an ER revival," Sherri Crichton shared in a 2019 interview with Yahoo Entertainment. "That was a passion project for Michael, because of all the years he spent in medical school and in residency. I don't know if we'd get that cast again, but anything is possible!"
All 15 seasons of NBC’s ER are currently available to stream on Hulu.