Reboots and revivals happen all the time in the modern era of television, but some of the most successful in recent memory have been in the sitcom realm. Earlier this year, Hulu and Disney+ revisited Malcolm in the Middle, with an older Frankie Muniz and most of the original cast on board for the chaos, in the four-episode miniseries Life’s Still Unfair to the tune of rave reviews and a massive audience. The recent second season of the wildly successful King of the Hill revival, too, has continued to recapture the magic by picking up with the Hill family and their neighbors on Rainey Street in modern-day Arlen, Texas. Yet, one series viewers have been clamoring for more of and has been rumored for years isn’t even a decade removed from being on screens — New Girl.
Led by Zooey Deschanel, the seven-season comedy followed schoolteacher Jess as she got a fresh start by moving into a Los Angeles loft with three single guys, forming an odd little family along with her best friend Cece (Hannah Simone). Pranks were pulled, laughs were had, and relationships formed, ended, and reformed, until their shortened goodbye with the eight-episode final run, where Jess ultimately married her on-again, off-again boyfriend and roommate Nick Miller (Jake Johnson) and Cece settled down with the formerly womanizing Schmidt (Max Greenfield). Their futures together were each shown, albeit briefly, before the friends said goodbye for the final time. Since then, just about all of the main cast members have been asked about the prospect of reviving the beloved Fox staple. Now, the much-hoped-for reunion may be happening after all.
In a recent appearance on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle, Greenfield offered the most concrete and promising update so far on the prospect of the former roommates returning to L.A. together. When asked why Nick, Jess, and the rest aren’t getting back together yet, he confirmed that, “As far as I know, it’s happening.” Better yet, there’s been real progress towards bringing the Elizabeth Meriwether-created series back in some form, as he added, “I’ve seen scripts, they’re amazing.” Presumably, Meriwether is penning the scripts, though she’s been quite busy of late, co-creating and showrunning the Michelle Williams-led Dying for Sex last year and creating the recently-premiered Emmy Rossum-led crime thriller Furious.
‘New Girl’ Stars Have Weighed in About Reviving the Beloved Sitcom
The cast of New Girl has remained close ever since their sitcom darling came to an end, which has made a reunion feel all the more likely. Both Johnson and Lamorne Morris have jokingly thrown each other under the bus as being responsible for holding things up, though. “We’re all in it besides Lamorne,” Johnson teased at Deadline‘s SXSW Studio, before calling out his old co-star, adding, “Because he got an Emmy, and he thinks they’re better than us. And I have direct quotes saying ‘I’m too talented and too funny to be on a sitcom with you, hacks.’” Morris played along in a separate interview, similarly calling Johnson the holdout because he’s a big Hollywood star now, notably voicing in Sony‘s Spider-Verse trilogy and Laika‘s upcoming stop-motion return, Wildwood, and starring in Apple TV‘s Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, among other things. In fact, he’s been humorously challenging Johnson for a while now, saying back in 2024:
“…Now, Jake Johnson, who’s my rival, who’s my political opponent, Jake says that he’s down, but Jake is not. Jake is not, folks. I am Lamorne for the people. Jake Johnson, not so much. I want everyone to call Jake out. Call Jake Johnson out, let him know that his career began the moment he stepped on that New Girl set, and he should never abandon his roots. Never. Not like me. That’s why I always come home to New Girl land, always.”
In a recent profile interview conducted by Collider’s Taylor Gates for his new Apple TV sports comedy movie, The Dink, Johnson was clear about what made New Girl special and what a revival would require to work and bring him back as Nick. “I think what made that show was Liz’s writing — her vision for it,” he said. “And she continues to prove what a talent she is.” He illustrated how important the creator was in establishing the tone of the show and giving them room to play around with their characters within Meriwether‘s vision.
“I think the chemistry of the cast in that era of life — it was magic with the guest stars and everybody. So my role in that was not pitching. I would pitch things like that he talks to a guy in the park who doesn’t speak back, pitch some weirdness of Nick. The way I like to do projects is they go, ‘This is the show,’ and I like to pitch what I can do within that show to add a little bit of a little spit to the ball. Whenever Liz would say, ‘This is what I want to do,’ if we were all in, then I would love to get in there and go within this world, ‘Can Nick do blank?’ I’ve done both now, where somebody doesn’t have a vision, and they’re like, ‘Well, what do you think?’ And I’m like, ‘I think you’re the writer, and I think you need a great vision, or we’re fucked.’ Then be a little bit open to some changes and some language and some moments, but you keep in your head what it is.”
New Girl is currently streaming on Hulu.
via Collider