‘I would never say never’

Kevin James says he’s ambivalent about reviving “The King of Queens“— for one reason in particular.

“They were asking me about [reviving] ‘King of Queens’ and I don’t think that’s possible because a third of that big core cast is gone,” James told The Post.

He was referring to Jerry Stiller, who played his oddball father-in-law, Arthur Spooner, on the top-rated CBS series, which aired from 1998-2007. James and Leah Remini played Rego Park UPS worker Doug Heffernan and his wife, Carrie, respectively.

Stiller, who died in May 2020 at the age of 92, came into “The King of Queens” fresh off his run on “Seinfeld,” where he played George’s (Jason Alexander) cranky father, Frank Costanza, opposite Estelle Harris as George’s mother, Estelle.

He garnered a 1997 Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for the role.

“Jerry Stiller was such an amazing part of [our] show,” James said. “To me, it would be hard to do it without him and I don’t know how that would work.”

He didn’t completely write off the idea of doing a “King of Queens” revival, however.

“It can work — they did it with ‘Frasier’ [on Paramount+] … but it depends on the show and the story and if there’s more to tell or if you’re just getting back together to get back together,” James said. “It’s tough to recapture that nostalgia, it really is.

“[‘The King of Queens’] was a moment in time and that was just so great, and I miss it and loved it — but it might be hard to get that back again.”

In 2006, James received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on the show. The award that year went to Tony Shalhoub for USA’s “Monk.”

The show’s cast also included Patton Oswalt as Doug’s friend Spence Olchin, Victor Williams as Deacon Palmer as Doug’s best friend and co-worker, Larry Romano as Doug’s pal Richie Iannucci and James’ real-life brother, Gary Valentine, as Doug’s cousin, Danny Heffernan.