‘Raven’s Home’ Star Jonathan McDaniel Teases Devon’s Return, Character’s Future With Raven

Disney Channel’s “That’s So Raven” spinoff, “Raven’s Home,” is currently in the midst of airing its second season, with two new episodes airing each week. This Friday’s episode, titled “Oh Father, Where Art Thou?,” will see the return of a fan-favorite character, Devon Carter (Jonathan McDaniel).

When International Business Times caught up with McDaniel at a fan event in New York City on Monday for his show “Hit The Floor,” he spilled about more than just his BET series. The star teased what fans can expect from Friday’s new “Raven’s Home” episode.

“You can expect a lot of family fun in this episode,” he told IBT. “It’s actually really funny this episode, I think that we kind of took it back to the old ‘Raven’ days, where it’s a lot of physical comedy. Raven is absolutely amazing in this episode. She’s so funny.”

In the new episode, Devon and Raven’s (Raven-Symoné) daughter, Nia (Navia Ziraili Robinson) is looking forward to having her dad come back to town for her school’s father-daughter dance. Things get complicated, though, when Raven has a vision that he’s stuck in a snowstorm and may not be able to make it. Raven being Raven, she does whatever she has to to make sure her daughter’s not disappointed.

It seems like it all might work out in the end because McDaniel said that people will be excited to see where Devon leaves off when the episode wraps. “It gives you the idea that perhaps there might be some hope in the future for him to be around more,” he said. “And for him to have more of a dynamic within the family.”

While he didn’t say for sure that fans will get to see Devon show up more in “Raven’s Home,” he did say that this episode opens the door for that.

“[Fans] just want to see a lot more, as well, from Devon and the whole Raven dynamic and see if there’s something that’s still there and play with it,” McDaniel said. “So, I think you’re going to be able to see that and be excited that he’s back in town, and you don’t know what’s to come. It’s gonna excite people.”

McDaniel recurred as Devon on “That’s So Raven” for 10 episodes over the course of the show’s four-season run, from 2003 to 2006. He was a love interest for Raven and a favorite character for viewers. Before Friday’s return, McDaniel previously reprised his role for two episodes of “Raven’s Home” last season.

Though the 33-year-old actor has moved on to many different projects since his original time on Disney, including his current role of German on “Hit The Floor,” the sitcom was his “huge start,” he said. That played into why he decided to return for the spinoff, along with a couple other reasons.

“Raven’s one of my best friends, still to this day. We’ve been friends for over 15 years, and when she called me and told me, ‘Hey, the show’s coming back, you’re obviously a fan favorite, they all love you, they all think that we should’ve been together, these have to be your kids,’ it has to play out how the fans really want it,” he said.

McDaniel “was very excited and blessed that [Raven-Symoné] gave” him the opportunity to come back to the series and to this character. Working with Raven-Symoné has been a lot of “fun” for him, which is why he also wouldn’t mind continuing that fun over on his BET show, too.

When asked if he’d ever want the actress to guest star on “Hit The Floor,” he enthusiastically responded about how “cool” and “awesome” that would be. He didn’t have an immediate idea of what type of character she should play, but said she’s “such an amazing actress that she really can play pretty much anything.”

He continued: “I think a lot of people haven’t really given her the opportunity to play the things that she really can because she’s so talented. But, I don’t know. She loves the show, so I don’t know. It would be great to see something like that happen. If that were to happen, that would be so awesome. I’m on her show, she’s on this show.”

While Raven-Symoné making an appearance on “Hit The Floor” remains just a dream for now, McDaniel’s return to “Raven’s Home” is very real. Catch his Season 2 episode when it airs on Disney Channel on Friday at 9:30 a.m. EDT.