There is a very good reason why neither Zack nor Kelly are a part of the upcoming “Saved by the Bell” revival: Their portrayers have not (yet?) been asked.
NBC Universal on Tuesday announced that their newly named streaming service, Peacock, will host a follow-up series to “Saved by the Bell.” Both Mario Lopez and Elizabeth Berkley are set to reprise their roles as Slater and Jesse, but there was no mention of any other attached original cast — even though the once-irrepressible Zack Morris apparently will serving as the governor of California (!) in the new series.
“Honestly, I was never approached,” Mark-Paul Gosselaar, who played Zack, told our sister site Variety in the video below. “I woke up to the news this morning with a ‘huh’ kind of response.”
Why the seeming snub? “I kind of understand it … the business side of things,” given that MPG now stars on ABC’s “mixed-ish” and Peacock is an NBC upstart, the actor said. “But I had no idea [the revival idea] was that far along.”
But “I’ve always been interested [in a revival],” he affirmed.
Hunted down by TMZ also in the wake of the revival news, Gosselaar indicated that he was not alone in not hearing his oversize mobile phone ring. “I believe that Tiffani [Thiessen, who played Kelly] and I, and the rest of the cast, have not been approached yet,” he said. (Thiessen most recently played the mom on Netflix’s “Alexa & Katie.”)