Knight Rider Returns – Again!

By John Freeman on October 26, 2016

The original 1980s Knight Rider, as featured in Look-In. Art by Barrie Mitchell

Justin Lin, the director behind the Fast and Furious franchise, is working with Machinima to bring back Knight Rider as a digital series.

World Screen reports the digital series is being produced with NBCUniversal (who own the property), popular video platform Machinima and Lin’s YouTube channel YOMYOMF, for launch next year.

Justin Bruening played Michael Knight’s estranged son in the 2008 reboot of Knight Rider.

The original Knight Rider premiered in 1982 on NBC and starred David Hasselhoff as Michael Knight, a crime fighter who was aided by his high-tech, artificially intelligent car KITT. The concept was revived for Team Knight Rider and a short-lived reboot starring Justin Bruening as Knight’s son in 2008.

British comic fans will recall the success of the original Knight Rider here in the UK in the 1980s, broadcast by ITV, and the popular Look-In strip, featuring art by Barrie Mitchell (among others).

“Knight Rider is an iconic franchise whose concepts of artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles were science fiction in the 1980s and are now science fact,” said Machinima’s CEO, Chad Gutstein. “Justin is one of the leading storytellers of his generation, and we couldn’t be more excited to work with him on re-invigorating Knight Rider for a new generation of fans.”

Lin is best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious 3–6 and Star Trek Beyond and is working on Space Jam 2 and Hot Wheels.

Machinima, via its Many2Many programing service creates, curate and celebrate the best fandom and gamer content across multiple video platforms aimed at fans of video games, animation, movies, TV, and the other endless forms of pop culture. With a focus on scripted, topical and gaming programing, and a talent network of 30,000+ programmers, Machinima reaches over 151 million viewers each month, featuring scripted series, original content, weekly and daily shows, official publisher pop culture content and gameplay videos.

Accessible from the computer to the TV to your smartphone, Machinima’s content can be found almost anywhere, on multiple YouTube channels, PlayStation Vue, go90, Comcast Watchable, Twitch, iOS, and Android.

Web Links

• Knight Rider Online
The oldest Knight Rider fan site

• Knight Rider NBC Official Site

• KittSite
Devoted to the 2008 Knight Rider show

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.