Returning to Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life was a gift. The four-part Netflix series offered closure for Lorelai and Emily, and set Rory Gilmore on a new path in life. It's only natural the fans want more, but TVLine reports stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel need a good reason to return to Gilmore Girls again, and no one has presented them with one just yet.
Before you start crying into your over-sized cup of coffee, you should hear the actors out. Neither one of them is ruling out the possibility of returning as the iconic mother-daughter duo at some point, but the story would have to be a compelling one. No one can blame them for being cautious. No matter how you felt about the revival, it had a clear storyline for each generation of the Gilmore women and it delivered a satisfying inter-generational tale of grief, family, and embracing the curve-balls of life.
To return to Stars Hollow once more just because the show and its characters are beloved, would be a disservice to the actors and the intricate world that series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino built. As Graham said during Deadline's Emmy Contenders event,
"If it all existed in a vacuum, I would play that character until my dying day… Now it's become what could we do with this story that is satisfying, that is worth continuing. I don’t know if there is a need to do more. I wouldn't want it to feel like we overstayed our welcome."
Netflix definitely wants more Gilmore Girls. In March, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told the UK Press Association there have been "preliminary" talks about a sequel — although, Graham and Bledel maintain those talks have not reached the stage where the actors are involved. It's no surprise the streaming service wants to stay in the Gilmore Girls business, given how much buzz the revival generated, but creatively it doesn't make sense for the actors or Sherman-Palladino to commit to more Stars Hollow stories right now.
Graham has a pilot, Linda From HR, in contention at Fox for the 2017-2018 TV season. Meanwhile, Bledel is set to appear in Hulu's highly anticipated adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale. The majority of the rest of the cast is just as busy: Milo Ventimiglia is deeply committed to his work on This Is Us, Matt Czuchry is working on a pilot, and Melissa McCarthy has basically confirmed she's content with how Sookie's story ended.
Likewise, Sherman-Palladino and her husband/writing partner Daniel Palladino are awaiting news from Amazon about their new series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. The cast and the writers all appear to be embarking on new adventures and tackling new characters. They deserve to continue forward with their careers without feeling obligated to do more Gilmore Girls simply because of the nostalgia factor.
When it comes to deciding the fate of Gilmore Girls, Bledel said it best, "I'm just interested in telling a story that is dynamic and that I can hook into."
Anything less would be a disservice to the fans, the actors, and the legacy of this amazing show. If inspiration strikes, and Sherman-Palladino comes up with another captivating chapter of the Gilmore story, then I am sure she will do everything in her power to make it happen. Until then, you can always return to Stars Hollow, and even better, you can support all of the amazing new projects the creative minds behind Gilmore Girls are working hard to bring to the screen.
