The Behind-The-Scenes Issues Putting A Potential Home Improvement Reboot On Ice

We may be living in the age of reboots, but "Home Improvement" fans may never get to join in on the nostalgia. And it's not because Tim Allen — who starred on the show as Tim "The Toolman" Taylor — has gotten too famous. Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Taran Noah Smith, and Zachery Ty Bryan — who played his onscreen kids — aren't exactly in the right place to reprise their roles. "They keep talking about how it could move forward, but they get stuck [because] there are some personality problems right now with the boys," Allen shared during a June 2026 interview with Us Weekly. "They've got their own issues," he continued. "I always thought it would be cool if it was a story about them. That's a little challenging right now, to put it mildly."

Of course, mild is an understatement, given the diverging life paths all three men are on. Thomas, for example, has quietly faded out of the spotlight, and Smith left the business ages ago. So it's unknown if they'd even want to return to the unforgiving glow of Hollywood. 

Meanwhile, Bryan, who's had a number of run-ins with the law, is one celeb who landed behind bars. In March 2026, a judge sentenced him to 19 months in prison, on top of the 16 months he was already serving, because of parole violations, according to People. He learned he would also face another potential prison bid once he completed that sentence, because of a DUI. Basically? They could move forward with the "Home Improvement" reboot, but it probably wouldn't include Allen's fictional kids unless they were recast.

The "Home Improvement" reboot may seem dead in the water, but fans of Tim Allen have embraced him in another pretty iconic role that's kept him busy over the years. Although Allen's net worth is larger than you might think, that doesn't mean he's decided to hang up his career. In fact, the actor, who's dominated big and small screens, found himself gearing up for a press tour for "Toy Story 5" in 2026. In the animated film franchise about anthropomorphic toys, he's delighted audiences for over three decades by voicing the character Buzz Lightyear.

Unsurprisingly, he seems just as proud of "TS" as he did when the first installment premiered in 1995. "Essentially, it's a story about a wonderful friendship," he told Us Weekly about the film's enduring nature. "Kids recognize it, and adults recognize it, and they've added a whole color palette with the other toys, so it's like a little community."

As for "TS5," ahead of its June 19, 2026, premiere date, he revealed that he was feeling confident about it, too. "It's a very, very clever story," he told Collider about the fifth film in December 2024. And no, he wasn't just saying that because of the hefty salary he commanded for it. "Had they not come up with a brilliant script, they wouldn't have done it and they wouldn't have called me and Tom [Hanks]," he continued, adding, "It's really clever. It was really a struggle to get, and then maybe two hours in, I was doing Buzz. I'm so blessed to be Buzz Lightyear, to be honest. It's gonna be fun."