The world has changed a lot since One Tree Hill aired weekly on the CW. Since then Hollywood has made a lot of changes prompted by the #MeToo movement. During the movement, Hilarie Burton and 17 other castmembers came forward with allegations against Showrunner Mark Schwahn. Burton recently went to Instagram to demand that One Tree Hill deserves a "redo with a Girl Boss." And many castmembers seemed to share this opinion, with Sophia Bush, Kate Vogel, and more adding their agreement in the comments.
A female showrunner could fix the problems the show was often criticized for such as oversexualized teens, revealing outfits, and slut-shaming. In recent years Hollywood has turned a corner and the pool of talented female showrunners has expanded hugely since OTH aired, so there are plenty of talented female showrunners to choose from who could help give One Tree Hill a well-deserved, women-driven, reintroduction to the world.
Jenji Kohan
Here is a showrunner that is known for leading shows with female-driven storylines and she does so by mixing humor with rawness. The women she brings to life in shows like Weeds and Orange Is The New Black are real, strong, and three-dimensional. They are motivated by their own goals and the relationships between the characters expand beyond romantic love. If she can make a show about a woman's prison, then she should be trusted to take OTH to the next level.
Liz Feldman
Feldman's show Dead to Me is great at showing the dichotomy of the female friendship and that is something OTH struggled with, often pitting the women against each other instead of empowering one another. The two lead women in Dead To Me forge a powerful friendship, and even though they could be further from similar, the two somehow become inseparable. If OTH handled the friendship of Brooke and Peyton more like Feldman delivers the friendship of Jen and Judy, encouraging each other to be happy even when it hurts them, then it could have been a better example for the youth viewing it, instead of ending up in their textbooks as an example.
Amy Sherman-Paladino
One showrunner who was around back when One Tree Hill first started out was Amy Sherman-Paladino who is most well known for Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Gilmore Girls was on around the same time as One Tree Hill but the way women are portrayed in both of these CW shows is vastly different. Rory doesn't even lose her virginity until college whereas all the girls on One Tree Hill had tossed their v-cards before the end of season 1, some before the show even began.
Paladino would be able to help the show switch its focus from oversexualized teens to a show about more important things like the friendship between Brooke and Peyton or the bond between brothers. But the audience might need a lot of coffee to keep up with the classic fast-talking dialogue this showrunner is known for.
Callie Khouri
One thing One Tree Hill did right is how it focused on music and helped many little-known bands become known through the show. This is definitely something that a potential reboot should keep and someone like Calli Khouri could help that happen. Her time as showrunner on Nashville gives her the experience of working on a show focused on music. It is clear that she knows her stuff as Nashville was a hit show for many seasons and it is praised for some of its strong storylines. Khori can bring that same magic to Tree Hill, just trade out country music for alternative rock and The Bluebird for Tric.
Elizabeth Berger
Season 5 of OTH can read a lot like an episode of This Is Us, as it jumps 5 years in the future and adds flashbacks to show what happened in the meantime. Lots of shows like to play around with time and feature flashbacks and flashforwards but it can easily become confusing and make the audience lost.
This Is Us is by far one of the best shows on television utilizing this technique, making a normal linear story about the Pearsons, interesting, and full of anticipation. This talent could help bring OTH to the next level while still keeping the special things about it alive.
Winnie Holzman
Winnie Holzman has worked on a few shows with similar feels as One Tree Hill, and her most famous one proves she has perfect experience for taking over the reboot. Her time on My So-Called Life can bring a new perspective to the show like she managed to catch so many people's attention back when Claire Danes ruled the screen. Her time on Roadies also adds to the musical vibe of the show and would help retell stories like Haylee's rise to fame and Peyton's creation of her record label.
Angela Kang
Walking Dead might very well be the exact opposite of OTH but there are a few things about Angela Kang, the current showrunner of the show, that make her a great fit for taking on the reboot. For starters, she took a male-dominated powerhouse of a show and managed to keep it going strong while injecting some of her own flair into it. As One Tree Hill was a lot a man-led show, Kang would not be too new to such a thing. Plus she recently directed Hilarie Burton in her role of Neegan's wife so perhaps this experience is part of what prompted her to speak out about OTH's need for a girl boss.
Maggie Friedman
The Netflix show Firefly Lane is all about the power of friendship, one that lasts decades. Friedman could take the strong themes of friendship she helped create on Firefly Lane and transfer it to One Tree Hill, which, at its core, really was a show about friendship. Friedman brought to life a great show about females finding their power in a man-filled world.
That kind of message is exactly what One Tree Hill needs, and Brooke and Peyton's friendship would be stronger with Friedman's touch. Although Kate does go 2 years without talking to Tully and even Brooke didn't go that long to forgive Peyton. But there's still hope that Kate and Tully's fight is for a way better reason than a guy.
Liz Tigelaar
After her sensitive touch on Facebook Watch's Sorry For your loss, Liz Tigelaar deserves to work on a bigger network and show people her talent. She managed to help a social media app have a leg in the streaming wars race, which is proven by the fact that it's still the most notable thing to come from the service even though it ended a few years ago. Tigelaar would also be a great fit for this show due to her work on Switched at Birth, a show that appeared on what is now Freeform and shares with One Tree Hill its love for basketball and the importance of being a team player.
Carly Mensch & Liz Flahive
These two managed to produce a show that started with a friend sleeping with her best friend's husband and somehow ended up as an encouraging tale of women's strength and power. The show managed to not linger too much on the love lives of the wrestling team, leaning away from the trope of love triangles that were popular on OTH and kept all the chick fights in the ring. These two showrunners are known for being responsive and listening to the concerns of the cast, with Flahive stating in an interview with a deadline that, "...even though we had a bunch of actresses in leotards every single day, we wanted them to feel as comfortable as if they were wearing jeans and a T-shirt."
This level of concern would have been appreciated on OTH's set, considering that Kate Voegele, who played Mia on the show, replied to Burton's plea for a redo with:" Me three. I’m breathing a sigh of relief just thinking about a woman making those wardrobe decisions!"