Nearly 20 years since the conclusion of “7th Heaven,” and over a year since the news broke about its reboot, original star Jessica Biel is giving fans an update on the new iteration of the show, including how she plans to “modernize” it for today’s audience and what she hopes to accomplish on set as a producer.
“What we want to create, how we want to modernize it, is really the things that are happening for teenagers and families that have teenagers all the way down to the youngest child — technology-based issues, school stuff, bullying stuff, drugs, alcohol,” Biel said on a recent episode of Collider Ladies Night. “All of those things we want to address in a very real way, which is, I think, what the original kind of gently touched on, but we were very careful about what our audience wanted. We had a lot of limitations. We have less limitations now.”
Created by Brenda Hampton and produced by Aaron Spelling, “7th Heaven” debuted on The WB (later The CW) in 1996 and concluded in 2007. The show proved to be a major early hit for the network, ultimately airing for 11 seasons and nearly 250 episodes. The show followed the Camden family and their seven children in the fictional town of Glen Oak, Calif., where Eric was a Protestant minister. In addition to Biel, the cast also included Stephen Collins, Catherine Hicks, Barry Watson, David Gallagher, Beverley Mitchell, Mackenzie Rosman, Nikolas Brino, and Lorenzo Brino.
When asked if the original show could withstand the test of time, Biel explained that the core theme — family — was “what was working back then.” “I’m looking for what I can watch with my kids on television. It’s limited. I cannot watch a lot of these things with them, and they love TV, and it’s my business. My husband and I are in this business together doing these things, and we can’t share a lot of that with our kids,” she continued. “So, I think the idea of whatever faith you want to have, that’s important. That we don’t have a lot on television, whether you believe that or go down that road or not. There are a lot of people that really do want to walk down that road, so I think some kind of faith, some kind of family, community, and maybe something not so jaded, like something a little bit more glass-half-full. It’s not that it’s soft, because it’s realistic.”
As a producer, Biel plans to create a “safe place for people to be really creative and really vulnerable,” she explained.
“When I’m on set as a producer, I’m always thinking about the safety net of the set and the communication that you hope you can have — free-flowing communication with your actors and your crew,” she added. “You just want to create a safe place for people to be really creative and really vulnerable, because a lot of the stuff that I’m doing now, the content that I’m doing now, it’s emotional stuff. It’s people really putting themselves out there on the chopping block emotionally, and if you don’t have that space protected, I think it’s hard. It’s hard to give those kinds of performances.”
Variety exclusively broke the news of the “7th Heaven” reboot back in May 2025. At the time, sources said that the new iteration of the show would focus on a diverse family, and that none of the original cast members would appear.