In what comes as a win for diversity, the Rugrats reboot will depict Phil and Lil’s mum Betty as a single mother and lesbian.
Yep, the new series, which has just premiered on US streaming service Paramount+, has been brought into the 21st century with its reimagining of the character.
Although Betty had a husband named Howard in the original series, her voice actor Natalie Morales said “anyone who watched the original show may have had an inkling Betty was a member of the alphabet mafia.”
Morales, who is known for her recurring roles in TV shows like Parks and Recreation and Dead to Me, explained that even fictional characters like Betty can be “hugely influential.”
“Betty is a single mom with her own business who has twins and still has time to hang out with her friends and her community, and I think it’s just so great because examples of living your life happily and healthily as an out queer person is just such a beacon for young queer people who may not have examples of that,” she said.
“Yeah, Betty is a fictional cartoon, but even cartoons were hugely influential for me as a kid and if I’d been watching Rugrats and seen Betty casually talking about her ex-girlfriend, I think at least a part of me would have felt like things might be okay in the future.
As reported by The A.V Club, the updated version of Betty is set to love football, own a café called Betty’s Beans and crack jokes about her ex-girlfriends.
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Check out the trailer for the Rugrats reboot:
