Back in Summer 2021, NBC announced that Mike Schur was creating a Field of Dreams show for Peacock. This was exciting news because Schur is a huge baseball nerd who has been behind some of the best television series of the past two decades: The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Plus, Field of Dreams is a cinema classic, so there was all kinds of TV magic to be made here.
And then it didn’t happen. Schur has previously revealed that Peacock abruptly pulled the plug, but now, he’s talking in depth about the canceled project, which would’ve have starred actors from his beloved series. This list of names is gonna hurt, so be warned.
“Andre Braugher was going to play James Earl Jones’ role, Kristen Bell was going to be in it,” Schur told Pablo Torre Finds Out. “Nick Offerman was going to be in it. William Jackson Harper who played Chidi in The Good Place was going to be in it.”
In 2021, Peacock hired writer/producer Mike Schur to create a seven-episode “Field of Dreams” reboot before it was eventually cancelled. 👀 The details:
"Andre Braugher was going to play James Earl Jones' role, Kristen Bell was going to be in it. Nick Offerman was going to be… pic.twitter.com/mXlx2zJ5pY
— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) October 17, 2023
As for Schur, the worst part of the experience is that NBC literally abandoned a baseball field constructed for the show in an Iowa cornfield thanks to making the cancellation decision while the series was deep into pre-production.
Via Awful Announcing:
“That’s the saddest part of this,” Schur said. “We went as far as you can possibly go without actually doing the thing that we set out to do.”
While emphasizing TV shows get axed all the time, Schur explained how the physical presence of the field and the symbolism of abandoning makes this story unique.
“We built it and they didn’t get the chance to show up,” Schur joked.
According to Schur, the series would’ve explored themes like “nostalgia, memory, and passion,” and let’s be real. The whole thing would’ve been freaking delightful.
(Via Awful Announcing)