Dulé Hill Warns You’ll Need Tissues for ‘The Wonder Years’ Reimagined Series (VIDEO)

You’ll laugh but you also may find yourself tearing up in the reimagining of the 1998 series The Wonder Years coming to ABC on September 22. This version, which takes place in Montgomery, Alabama in 1968, introduces us to the Williams family and centers on 12-year old Dean (Elisha “E.J.” Williams) as he experiences everything from his first crush to the devastation of real life events. (Like the original, the story is told via voiceover narration from the adult Dean, here played by Don Cheadle.)

Dulé Hill (Psych, The West Wing), who plays Dean’s smooth musician father Bill Williams, recently spoke with TV Insider’s Jim Halterman and warned that things are going to get a bit emotional. “I think you’re going to need tissues because your heart is being challenged in the most wonderful way,” he details. “And I think you’re going to need tissues because there’s going to be times that you were going to be laughing so hard that there’ll be tears of joy. I think it’ll be a nice pendulum swing that’s happening.”

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And while it’s easy to compare it to the original series starring Fred Savage as young Kevin Arnold, the show has its own take on what a Black family was going through during this time period. “It’s a wonderful thing to be able to widen the lens a little bit and show different experiences, because it’s not only through one lens do we have wonder years, I think all families have their own wonder years,” Hill explains.

He also adds that having Savage involved as an executive producer (he also directed the pilot) was a bonus for the new series. “It was great to have somebody who could come in and not only be there for the entire cast and not only be there to help Saladin [K. Patterson, creator] along the way, but also to be there for EJ who plays young Dean Williams, which was the role that Fred Savage played in the original. The marriage of the two of them, Fred Savage and E.J. Williams, I think, turned into something really beautiful and brilliant.”

Check out the interview above.

The Wonder Years, Series Premiere, September 22, 8:30/7:30c, ABC