Though fans of the iconic 1990s TV show Full House are still dying to see the adorable Michelle Tanner back in the company of her sitcom sisters, so far the character, and the actors who portrayed her, famed twin moguls Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, haven't made a reappearance in the show's spinoff, Fuller House. Things can always change, though, in the television business, and with Netflix releasing the remainder of Season 3's episodes this week, viewers continue to wonder — will Michelle return for part two of Fuller House Season 3?
Though some may have become a bit more hopeful when star Bob Saget reunited with Ashley earlier this month for a charity event, it still seems super unlikely that the twins will return. In September, Fuller House showrunner and series creator Jeff Franklin told TVLine that he was no longer attempting to contact them about a guest stint. "Personally, I’ve given up asking them," he told the outlet. "The door is open, but I’m not going to be calling them anymore to invite them. They just don’t seem interested in coming. It’s been three years of invitations, so they know the door is open. It’s up to them to decide if they want to come play or not."
The Olsens' absence is unsurprising given where their careers headed as they reached adulthood. The 31-year-old former actors have branched further into fashion than they ever did into television and film, though they remain show business icons in their own rights. The last production the two shared was 2004's New York Minute, and after that, it's clear that those film careers were not at the top of their priority lists. Mary-Kate had a stint on Weeds and a role in 2011's Beastly, but since then hasn't accumulated any acting credits. Ashley's acting resume is even shorter post-New York Minute, with only a few bit parts and appearances as herself in video shorts.
The lack of screen time doesn't even remotely suggest that the two haven't been wildly successful, though, which makes their lack of interest in Fuller House all the more understandable. In 2006, the pair established The Row, a high-end ready-to-wear fashion line of casual clothing, and in 2007 followed it up with Elizabeth and James, a more affordable lifestyle brand of apparel, accessories and fragrances.
They're not just the faces of these brands — they're the designers and businesswomen behind the label, methodically and successfully carving out a name for themselves, according to Elle. "Every move that we've made through the past 10 years has been step-by-step," Ashley told Elle in a 2014 interview. "One item at a time. We sit and look at everything in every possible version of how you might wear it," Mary-Kate added in the same piece. "We are all about making our clothes work with reality."
Given the incredible success Mary-Kate and Ashley have seen in fashion after largely closing the chapter on their acting careers, a return to the campy, cheesy comedy of Fuller House would be truly out of character. And they shouldn't be punished for that. Since Fuller House's premiere, they've been somewhat made out as stuck-up bores who aren't game for a laugh, with even the show itself even poking fun at their absence with a cheeky (and kind of snarky) fourth wall breaking moment in its premiere.
But think about it — if you had left an onscreen life behind nearly a decade ago before moving on to make millions in a completely new way while cultivating a famously private life for yourself, would you be so keen on thrusting yourself back into the spotlight of mainstream entertainment for the sake of granting a Netflix audience a few nostalgic chuckles?
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Saget previously said, despite Danny Tanner's apparent disapproval, that he understands why they wouldn't return. "People should do what they want with their lives, and when they're nine months old and they get a job, [they have a right to stop doing it]," he told ET in November. "I love them very, very much, Ashley and Mary-Kate, and they love what they do and acting is not what they want to do."
So, let's all take a page from Saget's book (a sentence I never thought I'd write), and let the Olsen twins live. They're doing a perfectly fine job of it without the scrutiny of a TV audience.
