Original “Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert fired back at Megyn Kelly over a comment the former Fox News host made about Netflix‘s upcoming adaptation of the classic book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Variety confirmed on Jan. 29 that Netflix is developing a new “Little House on the Prairie” series. Gilbert was the star of NBC’s popular TV adaptation of Wilder’s book series, which aired for nine seasons and 204 episodes between 1974 and 1982.
“Netflix, if you woke-ify ‘Little House on the Prairie’ I will make it my singular mission to absolutely ruin your project,” Megyn Kelly posted on X while sharing the news of the Netflix reboot.
Gilbert responded on Threads and encouraged Kelly to “watch any episode on any streaming platform anywhere in the world.”
“Apparently Megyn tweeted (I’m not on that platform) asking that Netflix not ‘woke-Ify’ their ‘Little House’ remake,” Gilbert added in a longer statement. “Ummm…watch the original again. TV doesn’t get too much more ‘woke’ than we did. We tackled: racism, addiction, nativism, antisemitism, misogyny, rape, spousal abuse and every other ‘woke ‘ topic you can think of. Thank you very much.”
Rebecca Sonnenshine (“The Boys,” “Vampire Diaries,” “Archive 81”) is set to serve as showrunner and executive producer on Netflix’s “Little House on the Prairie” reboot. The official logline for the new series reads: “Part hopeful family drama, part epic survival tale and part origin story of the American West, this fresh adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic semi-autobiographical ‘Little House’ books offers a kaleidoscopic view of the struggles and triumphs of those who shaped the frontier.”
The “Little House” series spanned eight books released in the 1930s and ’40s, while a ninth was published posthumously in 1971. The franchise has sold more than 73 million book copies to date. NBC’s TV series with Gilbert also continues to be enormously successful. Nielsen recently reported the series was one of the most-streamed library titles of 2024, garnering 13.25 billion viewing minutes on Peacock.
“I fell deeply in love with these books when I was five years old,” Sonnenshine said in a statement about her “Little House” Netflix reboot. “They inspired me to become a writer and a filmmaker, and I am honored and thrilled to be adapting these stories for a new global audience with Netflix.”
