{"id":311795,"date":"2026-02-22T18:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311795\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T18:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T18:08:09","slug":"red-dwarf-co-creator-teases-potential-on-screen-return-with-new-cast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/311795\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Dwarf co-creator teases potential on-screen return \u2013 with new cast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Red Dwarf&#8217;s creators, cast, and fans have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/sci-fi\/red-dwarf-special-scrapped-doug-naylor-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trying to get the beloved show back on screens<\/a> for years \u2013 and now, co-creator Rob Grant has revealed a new glimmer of hope for the comedy sci-fi.<\/p>\n<p>Grant and fellow writer Andrew Marshall have recently announced a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/sci-fi\/red-dwarf-prequel-novel-exclusive-newsupdate\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">prequel novel<\/a>, set for release in July, which will follow Lister, Rimmer and co. as they take shore leave on Titan before the events of the TV series.<\/p>\n<p>However, Grant has exclusively revealed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Radio Times<\/a> that he initially had hopes that his new story would be developed for screens \u2013 and he&#8217;s not ruling it out in future.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether he would be interested in the prequel making its way to screens, Grant responded: &#8220;Yes! We originally wrote it as a treatment for a TV spin-off and took it around, but it&#8217;s horribly expensive, and we couldn&#8217;t really raise enough interest.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;We might down the line\u2026 we&#8217;ve been talking to streamers about it but, when you read it, [you&#8217;ll realise] it\u2019s a whole world you&#8217;d have to create. It wouldn&#8217;t be cheap.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/red-dwarf-xii-0d80e99-e1738167106868.jpg\" alt=\"Red Dwarf XII\" data-item-name=\"Red Dwarf XII\" title=\"red-dwarf-xii\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1 \/ 0.6664201183431953;object-fit:contain\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"466.4940828402367\" data-testid=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dave<\/p>\n<p>Craig Charles (Rimmer), Chris Barrie (Lister), Danny John Jules (the Cat), and Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) starred in the original series, which has made multiple comebacks across the years.<\/p>\n<p>However, if the spin-off was to make it to screens, Grant is envisioning recasting the characters, admitting of the original cast: &#8220;The guys are getting old.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8220;We\u2019d really need to recast. That&#8217;s what I thought the Titan spin-off might achieve. We\u2019d get a new Rimmer and Lister &#8211; but the existing cast could appear in quite decent roles, if they wanted to.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know \u2013 and I&#8217;m with them \u2013 that the fans adore the cast. I adore them too. And just to a lot of people, it just wouldn&#8217;t feel right, anybody else playing anything like those parts. But what else can you do? Except AI?!&#8221; Grant went on to joke.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image__img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Red-Dwarf-Titan-efce5c3.jpg\" alt=\"The book cover of Red Dwarf: Titan\" data-item-name=\"The book cover of Red Dwarf: Titan\" title=\"The book cover of Red Dwarf: Titan\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1 \/ 1.538139534883721;object-fit:contain\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"700\" height=\"1076.6976744186047\" data-testid=\"image-img\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The book cover of Red Dwarf: Titan\u00a0Gollancz<\/p>\n<p>For now, however, Grant is focused on the new novel, explaining: &#8220;It&#8217;s Lister and Rimmer before the accident on shore leave on Titan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s set one universe to the side, so we can have familiar characters but we can do different things with them, because the difficulty was writing something that was going to be original and fresh and using the same characters without breaking the canon.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So it was quite an intricate bit of work that actually took us about a year-and-a-half longer than we were hoping!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added that the story will see Lister and Rimmer &#8220;get a message from the far future warning them that all realities are going to collapse unless they do something about it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Red Dwarf: Titan will publish in hardback, ebook and audio on 16 July 2026. Red Dwarf is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.<\/p>\n<p>Check out more of our <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/sci-fi\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/sci-fi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"16\">Sci-fi<\/a> coverage or visit our <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/tv\/tv-listings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"17\">TV Guide<\/a> and <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/streaming-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"18\">Streaming Guide<\/a> to find out what&#8217;s on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to <a title=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/audio\/podcasts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-auth=\"NotApplicable\" data-linkindex=\"19\">The Radio Times Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Red Dwarf&#8217;s creators, cast, and fans have been trying to get the beloved show back on screens for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-311795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}