Patton Oswalt Says He’d Reunite With Kevin James And Leah Remini ‘In A Second’ For ‘Kevin Can Wait’


Patton Oswalt has a new NBC comedy set to debut next month, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t consider going back to his roots for a guest star role on a rival network. Oswalt, who will make his return to network TV as a series regular on NBC’s upcoming comedy A.P. Bio, recently told TV Guide he’s willing to go back a decade to reunite with his former King of Queens co-stars Kevin James and Leah Remini on their sophomore CBS sitcom Kevin Can Wait.

Before landing the role of Principal Durbin on A.P. Bio, The King Of Queens was Patton’s breakout TV role and his last regular acting job on a network series. After The King of Queens ended its nine-season run in 2007, Oswalt continued on with his stand-up comedy career as well as guest and recurring roles on shows like Two and a Half Men and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Patton also landed a series of television and movie voice roles, including the voice of Remy in Ratatouille and the narrator role on ABC’s The Goldbergs. But to King of Queens fans, Patton Oswalt will always be known as Spence Olchin, Doug Heffernan’s (Kevin James) nerdy subway worker friend.

And Oswalt seems to have a soft spot for the long-running CBS show, too. While he hasn’t been asked to do appear as a guest star on Kevin Can Wait, Patton revealed he would jump at the chance to reunite with his former co-stars. When asked if he had been contacted about doing a Kevin Can Wait guest spot, Oswalt told TV Guide, “No!”

“And if they did, I would do it in a second. King of Queens was one of the most fun times I’ve ever had. Getting to work with Kevin and Jerry Stiller and Leah, that was the best show. I loved it.”

Kevin Can Wait is not a King of Queens spinoff, but it stars Patton Oswalt’s former King of Queens co-stars Kevin James and Leah Remini, as well as Gary Valentine, James’ real-life brother who played cousin Danny on the late 1990s series.

While Remini’s guest role on Kevin Can Wait last spring turned into a permanent role, many fans have been hoping for a full-on King of Queens reunion. Now that Oswalt is on board, maybe Kevin James can pull Jerry Stiller (Arthur Spooner on the show) out of retirement. And has anyone seen Victor Williams (Doug Heffernan’s best friend, Deacon Palmer) lately?

Of course, Kevin James has long said he doesn’t want Kevin Can Wait to be known as King of Queens 2. The King of Queens was about a childless working-class Queens couple and their friends, while Kevin Can Wait is about James’ character as a family man.

“I want this show to take on its own life and become its own thing,” James said in 2016 of Kevin Can Wait. “It can’t help but be compared as it is, but I want to reduce that as much as possible.”

But Leah Remini’s reunion two-parter later earned Kevin Can Wait huge ratings and spawned an entire revamp of the show, so maybe there’s hope to see more King of Queens stars in Kevin James’ new world.

Take a look at the video below to see Patton Oswalt as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens.

Kevin Can Wait airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. Patton Oswalt’s A.P. Bio premieres with a special preview on Thursday, Feb 1 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

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