‘One Tree Hill’ will journey into the future

The network will post
diaries online to fill the gap while the future storyline is being told.

By TERRY MORROW

KNOXVILLE (TENN.) NEWS SENTINEL

“One Tree Hill” is going where it’s never been before: the future.

When the teen-drama soap returns for a fifth season (9 p.m., Tuesday, CW), the story will skip ahead four years. The main cast of characters has left high school behind, starting careers and romances. Change is in the air.

Loner Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) has traded his basketball for a career as a writer. Newcomer Michaela McManus has been added to the cast for a multiepisode arc, in which she’ll play his “tough but kind” New York editor working on his novel.

Brooke will be involved in the corporate world, in which she encounters a “glamorous and intimidating” business exec (Daphne Zuniga) during a five-episode arc.

Nathan and Haley’s son will get a nanny (Torrey DeVitto).

And topping off the cast changes is none other than the ex-Mr. Britney Spears, Kevin Federline, who will reportedly appear in a multiepisode arc.

Although the weekly version of the show will be set years later, we don’t have to miss out on the missing period of time. The CW has plans to post diaries online to fill the gap.

In an MTV interview, “Hill” co-star Hilarie Burton said, “we’ve seen the high-school dramas not do so well while they’re in college, and another thing, we’ve done everything that everyone does in college.”

She said the changes will “enable [the show] to do flashbacks and a lot of cool stuff with the characters.”

Another reason “Hill” is making changes: ratings. The series has never been a gigantic hit, though it does well enough with the young demographics that the CW desires. As all the regular characters age, it’s time to move the story ahead. Instead of opting for a college storyline, “Hill” decided to go directly to young adulthood.