The Canceled Gilmore Girls Spinoff Is Going Viral On TikTok

Longtime Gilmore Girls fans might assume they’re pretty well-versed in the history of the beloved 2000s drama. However, details of the show’s canceled spinoff have come as a major surprise to many. In a viral TikTok, it is explained that the Season 3 episode “Here Comes the Sun” was intended as a back-door pilot for a potential spinoff series titled Windward Circle that centered on the character of Jess Mariano (Milo Ventimiglia) as he moved to California. As mentioned, the series was ultimately scrapped. However, some fans wish Windward Circle had made it to air.

“It’s a shame we never got this show,” one fan wrote on TikTok. “We love Jess and his character development and would love to actually see it progress in detail with the spinoff.” Others took a different view, however, with another user commenting: “I’m glad it didn’t take off I don’t think it would have been good.”

Over on Reddit, Gilmore Girls fans also claimed that The WB network had originally committed to a six-episode spinoff series but “the cost of filming in Venice, California was too much and the pilot wasn’t that well-received.” Meanwhile, another user wrote that after plans for Windward Circle fell apart, Gilmore Girls showrunner Amy Sherman-Palladino asked Ventimiglia to reprise the role of Jess on the original show, but “Milo decided that it was time to move on and left.”

Although the spinoff never saw the light of day, a Gilmore Girls sequel series was green-lit almost a decade after the show’s conclusion in 2007. Titled Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, the reboot was fronted by original cast members Lauren Graham, Alexis Bledel, Scott Patterson, and Kelly Bishop, and ran for a total of four episodes on Netflix in 2016.