‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ Creator Floats Reboot Idea, Potential Matches: “Such A Fertile Environment”
As Y2K nostalgia continues to dominate elements of Hollywood, one pop culture sensation of the era could make a comeback.
Following “a few false starts” over the years, Celebrity Deathmatch creator Eric Fogel recently discussed the possibility of rebooting his claymation series that originally ran on MTV from 1998 to 2002.
“That’s the beauty of the show — it’s timeless. These matches are iconic,” he told People. “You could literally open Google and type a few words, and you’ll get a whole bunch of new Celebrity Deathmatch ideas. It’s an evergreen concept.
“I was just browsing this morning. Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel hate each other. You know, Will Smith and Chris Rock probably still hate each other? Taylor Swift and Kanye West is still a match I’d like to visit in the ring. It feels like there are still some unresolved issues there.”
Fogel continued, “It’s such a fertile, fertile environment. I feel like you could bring it back tomorrow, and people would tune into it.”
Dolly Parton, referee Mills Lane and Jennifer Lopez in ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ (MTV/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Following the show’s original run, a revival ran for two seasons on MTV2 from 2006 to 2007. Other reboots failed to get off the ground in 2015 and 2018. Now in the age of social media, Fogel “would love the opportunity to just see what would happen.”
“To me, that would be even more entertaining, to have that interaction where now, celebrities are so vocal and you can get that sort of real-time reaction. I think that would make it even more exciting,” he said.
“Politically? We don’t even have to go there, but you know… Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg would be a very fertile environment for a Celebrity Deathmatch. And then, you know, just pivoting back to the social media angle, you know, MrBeast and Logan Paul would be insane, right? You have a whole new sort of stomping grounds that you could play in, and it’s just unlimited,” added Fogel. “Let’s do it. Let’s make it.”
What started as a short in January 1998, depicting a match between Marilyn Manson and Charles Manson, Celebrity Deathmatch featured horrifically violent claymation wrestling matches between buzzy celebs of the time, including Pamela Anderson vs. RuPaul, Hillary Clinton vs. Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Aniston vs. Courteney Cox vs. Lisa Kudrow, Christina Aguilera vs. Britney Spears and James Van Der Beek vs. Saddam Hussein.
