Mischa Barton Just Joined 'The Hills' Reboot, So It's Definitely Not What You're Expecting
Marissa Cooper is moving from the O.C. to the Hollywood Hills. Apparently, the upcoming reboot of The Hills is bringing in some unexpected star power, in the form of Mischa Barton. Yep — according to a new report from PEOPLE, Mischa Barton just joined The Hills reboot, so this new show will definitely be pretty different from what you might have been expecting.
Both PEOPLE and Page Six cite sources that claim Mischa Barton will be joining the rest of The Hills cast for the upcoming reboot, called The Hills: New Beginnings. Although Barton was not part of The Hills' original run, she actually does have a profound connection to the iconic MTV reality show. Barton's teen drama The O.C. ran from 2003 to 2007 and made waves for its juicy storylines about high-society families in Newport Beach. It became so big, in fact, that MTV created its reality series Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County in 2004 after being inspired by The O.C., and that series was then spun off into The Hills a couple years later. Now, the girl that is arguably the inspiration for the whole The Hills franchise is going to be a cast member on the show herself.
This casting announcement is obviously pretty surprising for fans of The Hills, since everyone pretty much assumed that The Hills: New Beginnings would just continue to follow the main cast of the original MTV series. Actually, Mischa Barton is the second new face that The Hills: New Beginnings is bringing in to shake things up — last month, That's So Raven star Kyle Massey was also confirmed to join the cast of the upcoming reboot.
Apparently, the rebooted series is planning on continuing to follow the lives of its original stars, but it will also introduce a "new generation" of well-known actors, socialites, or influencers. So far, the only names we have of this new generation are Kyle Massey and Mischa Barton, although the Us Weekly report that confirmed Massey's involvement also mentioned two unnamed bloggers are joining the new cast as well. If The Hills: New Beginnings really is building up a new cast of stars to join its original crew, then we can probably expect even more familiar names to start announcing their involvement in the reboot as well.
Of course, along with all these newcomers, The Hills: New Beginnings has also confirmed that almost all of its original cast will return for the show, with a few notable exceptions. The Hills protagonist Lauren Conrad will not be back for the revival, and neither will Kristin Cavallari or Lo Bosworth. But, although things appeared iffy for a while, Brody Jenner did recently confirm he will be part of the new series. The new show will also bring back Spencer Pratt and his now-wife Heidi Pratt (née Montag), Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, Justin "Bobby" Brescia, and Stephanie Pratt.
MTV has not announced a premiere date for The Hills: New Beginnings yet, but the network did assure fans it would debut sometime in 2019.
