Talk had centered around a remake or a feature film version of the show for years. In 1997, CBS and Stephen J. Cannell (The Rockford Files, Baretta, The Commish) collaborated on a pilot for a possible new Five-O series. The pilot would introduce some of the new cast and feature former regulars from the original series, including Fong. According to Five-O fan and author of a book on the show, Karen Rhodes, Fong was asked to reprise his role and appear in the pilot. Neither Fong nor any of the other regulars told Cannell that Chin Ho had been killed off at the end of the tenth season. This was only discovered after all of Fong's scenes had been shot, and to excise him from the project would have caused delays and overruns in cost. Hoping that CBS executives would not remember the one episode out of hundreds, Cannell screened the pilot.