“California here we come, right back where we started from’… unfortunately for Fox the opening lines of The O.C. theme tune will not come true this year.

Fox entertainment boss Michael Thorn told Deadline that the youth-skewing, sun-soaked soap “will not happen”.

“The O.C. will not happen despite my deep passion for it to come back. No one is available, unfortunately. I would be lying if I said ‘I didn’t ask’ every June,” he added.

The drama, which was created by Gossip Girl’s Josh Schwartz, ran for four season on Fox between 2003 and 2007. Produced by Warner Bros TV in association with Wonderland Sound and Vision and College Hill Pictures, the show centred around Ryan Atwood, played by Ben McKenzie, a troubled but gifted young man who is adopted by Peter Gallagher’s Sandy Cohen and Kelly Rowan’s Kirsten Cohen. He and his foster brother Seth, played by Adam Brody, spend much of the series navigating relationships with the likes of Summer Roberts, played by Rachel Bilson and Marissa Cooper, played by Mischa Barton.

McKenzie recently starred in Amazon’s The Report as well as Fox’s Gotham, while Brody is starring in Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman and recently wrapped British drama Curfew. Last year, Bilson starred in Fox pilot Lovestruck, while Barton starred in a reboot of MTV’s The Hills.

Thorn’s comments were echoed last year by creator Schwartz. “We were asked about doing a return to The O.C. to see those kids grown up. For us, that was a very, very singular story. We felt like we completed that tale by the end,” he said at the Summer TCA Press Tour.