Left to right: Jenna Ushkowitz, Chris Colfer, Kevin McHale, Amber Riley and Lea Michele in Glee

We never stopped believin'... now it's official: Glee, the Emmy-winning US high school musical comedy drama, is set to return.

Ryan Murphy's series, which chronicled the highs and lows of choir members from Ohio, premiered on Fox in 2009 and ran for six seasons until 2015.

The original cast included Lea Michele, Amber Riley, the late Cory Monteith, Jane Lynch and Matthew Morrison as Will Schuester, the optimistic teacher leading the fictional McKinley High's glee club.

The reboot was announced, external by Disney and Hulu via the show's social media team on Wednesday.

The show was a huge hit first time around, known for its big laughs and big heart, tackling topics such as sexuality, race, disability and mental health.

In the series, glee club New Directions helped misfit students find their voices through song and dance.

Lynch served as the club's main antagonist, the villainous cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester.

The choir's covers of Don't Stop Believin', River Deep, Mountain High and Smooth Criminal also brought older hit songs to the attention of younger audiences.

In 2010, the show was adapted for a concert tour in which was captured on film.

Around the same time, the cast overtook The Beatles as the non-solo act with the most Billboard Hot 100 appearances.

On Wednesday, the Wanted singer Max George told BBC Scotland that appearing in the show's sixth season was "an amazing experience", adding that he'd "love to do it again".

"I messaged the casting director from it, just with wide eyes from the announcement," he said.

Asked if it makes sense for the series to come back, he said: "I think so… It's been over 10 years, so I think that's a nice break.

"I think it was probably coming towards the end in terms of the storylines and everything, but 10 years has gone by, and Ryan Murphy will probably come up with something genius. So I'm expecting big things."

In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, co-creator Murphy confirmed he had written a reboot script with collaborators Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan.

He also said he had "been in touch with around 10 of the original cast members".

"It's very sweet, they all had a lot of questions but they all were very enthusiastic about the idea," he said. "Nobody's read it, so we'll see."

He added: "I vowed to myself that I wanted to write a couple of them to see what people think, particularly the cast, because we were very close when we were making it."

It came after Michelle, who played Rachel Berry, the ambitious singer at the centre of the club, had told E! News that she - like Lynch - would be more than happy to return.

"I will always love Glee," she said. "I love Ryan Murphy. It just holds such a special place in my heart for me... I will follow Ryan wherever he goes."

Speaking to Bustle recently, another star of the show, Chris Colfer, admitted that any such reboot would be difficult following the death of Naya Rivera, who played Glee club favourite Santana Lopez.

"It was a really tough show to do, and it would be really hard to do it now that Naya is gone," said Colfer, who portrayed Kurt Hummel - the flamboyant singer and original choir member who faces bullying at the school.

"But I do know that Glee fans would probably come after me with pitchforks and jazz hands if I said no. So I don't know, but hopefully I'll have more information and I can actually think about it."

Rivera died in 2020 at the age of 33 in an accidental drowning.

Hers was the third death among the Glee cast. Monteith, who played football star turned singer Finn Hudson, died in 2013 at the age of 31 from a toxic mix of alcohol and heroin.

Mark Salling, another Glee cast member, took his own life in 2018 at the age of 35 while awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges.

A mini Glee reunion occurred on Sunday at London's Royal Albert Hall, when Darren Criss, aka Glee's Blaine Anderson, brought out Colfer for a duet of the song Baby It's Cold Outside.

Earlier this month, former Glee co-stars Harry Shum Jr and Amber Riley reunited on Dancing with the Stars.