Yes, Jennifer Garner Would Do An Alias Reboot — Why The Underrated TV Heroine Needs To Come Back

Alias made Jennifer Garner a star back in the 2000s, and with other shows from that decade getting reboots left and right, it may be worth revisiting. In the show, Garner stars as Sydney Bristow, a double agent for the CIA who's posing as an operative for a secret criminal and espionage organization called SD-6. Garner played both sides of the fence in Alias, as both the villain and the hero, depending on how the viewer sees the show.

More famous names associated with Alias include J.J. Abrams, who famously directed two films in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and co-created Lost. He also created Alias, and his eye for science fiction lore is clear throughout the series. Alias packs in a lot of great plot-driven and character-driven episodes that feature Sydney in conflict with her missions and the people around her. The series was also critically acclaimed, with Alias ranking among the American Film Institute's best series of 2003. But aside from the high-tech gadgets, and Bristow's multiple personas lies an interesting story that welcomes a reboot.

What Jennifer Garner Has Said About A Potential Alias Reboot

She's Very Interested — On The Condition That J.J. Abrams Is Involved

The creative minds behind Alias have not announced a reboot of the show. However, star Jennifer Garner is interested in bringing Alias back on one condition: J.J. Abrams has to be at the helm. She made this abundantly clear not only when she appeared on The View in 2023, but also in a 2024 interview with The Ringer's Dear Felicity podcast.

The interview revealed that Garner's co-star Greg Gunberg, who played Eric Weiss, proposed a full-length feature script for the Alias reboot. However, he didn't think that Garner would go for it. She was quick to counter him, saying (via People),

“Are you kidding? Of course I would...I’d do anything J.J. would direct.”

An Alias reboot would work because American sociopolitical issues have changed significantly since the show went off the air in 2006. Since then, the U.S. has dealt with AI, gun control issues, and COVID-19. It would be especially interesting if an Alias reboot focused on AI and its constantly growing capabilities. Maybe Bristow's villain could be an experimental AI supercomputer. The potential for reboot storylines really is endless.

Jennifer Garner's Alias Heroine Is One Of TV's Most Underrated

She Deserves To Be As Iconic As Buffy & Veronica Mars

While Sydney Bristow's contemporary TV heroines, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Veronica Mars are widely remembered for being female stars who have agency over their lives, Jennifer Garner's character never became quite so iconic. This is unfortunate, because Alias likely proved to networks that female-driven action and thriller series like Veronica Mars could be successful.

However, Buffy the Vampire Slayer came out in 1997, four years before Alias. A lot of the intrigue around Buffy came from the fact that she was a teenager and dealt with typical teenage issues like going out on dates and studying for school, while Sydney was already a grown adult. Buffy is also famous for its romantic storylines, especially the love triangle between Buffy, Angel, and Spike.

While, Sydney had a love interest in Michael Vaughn, their romance never sparked the same kind of water cooler — or high school hallway — conversations as Buffy's romantic storylines. Garner's character may not have reached feminist icon status, but an Alias reboot would certainly help that.