"We will pay homage to him in the best way possible," Brian Austin Green says of honoring Luke Perry with the reboot
It’s been just five months since the shocking and sudden death of Luke Perry, and his former costars are still coming to terms with the loss.
“There are so many layers of grief,” Jennie Garth, who stars alongside Tori Spelling, Jason Priestley, Shannen Doherty, Ian Ziering, Brian Austin Green and Gabrielle Carteris on Fox’s BH90210 — a reboot of their seminal ‘90s series, Beverly Hills, 90210 — tells PEOPLE. “It’s been really intense. I still don’t like admitting that it’s true.”
Perry, who starred on seven seasons of the original series, was not signed on to do the reboot, in part due to commitments on The CW’s Riverdale, but “he will always be a part of building the crazy thing we all became a part of,” says Green, 46, of the original series. (In a tragic coincidence, the announcement of the reboot came on the same day that Perry suffered a stroke — he died five days later at the age of 52).
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Amongst the cast, the grief, “varies daily,” says Green. “I can be reading a rewrite and Luke is mentioned and I just fall apart. Luke was an older brother to me. And it seemed like he was going to be around forever.”
For Spelling, 46, the reality of Perry’s death hits at different times. “We did the promo shoot, and we were all there except for Luke,” she recalls. “I really felt like something was missing.”
The reboot will acknowledge Perry, and his absence, says Green. “A lot of people have said, ‘The show, won’t be the same without Dylan.’ And I agree. But the reality is he is no longer here to share it with us. So, we will pay homage to him in the best way possible.”
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And Garth, who co-conceived of the show, along with Spelling, notes that the timing of the show’s new iteration may be fitting, heartbreaking as it is.
“This show has been a big deal for all of us, and the timing is significant,” says Garth, 47. “I really think we were all meant to be together.”
BH90210 premieres Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox.
