The classic sitcom Roseanne never left fans' hearts in the years since it's been off the air, and it's coming back in a huge way, with ABC having recently ordered a limited series revival. Not a ton of info has come out about what fans can expect, but according to Aunt Jackie -- ahem -- co-star Lauren Metcalf, Roseanne will not only bring back all our favorite characters, but some new faces will apparently also be introduced. Here's how she put it.
Everybody's on board, yeah. There will be new people, because we had children. You know, Roseanne and I both had little tiny tots 20 years ago. So there will be new characters.
Time out. Roseanne's ensemble was populated enough to warrant a "No New Characters" policy in putting together the revival's episodes. With all the extended family members, friends, neighbors, former co-workers and more, the Conner and Harris families wouldn't really need to interact with anyone else. But, of course, if Roseanne wants to bring more personalities into this blue-collar universe, it's not like the writers' previous success with writing characters is under fire.
Okay, now that we're past that, we can dig into who these new characters will be. Admittedly, during Laurie Metcalf's visit to The Tonight Show, she seems to be saying that Roseanne and Jackie's children will be these "new" folks, even though both of them were already on the show before it wrapped its run. Jackie gave birth to Andy during Season 6, during her fractured relationship with Fred, and Roseanne had lil' Jerry Garcia Conner during Season 8's Halloween episode. Granted, their ages at the time meant neither of them was a legitimate narrative force, so it's entirely possible that Andy and Jerry will be big parts of the new stories coming our way.
After all, Roseanne's kids were a big part of the original run of the series, so this would be an interesting way to offer up follow-up stories for Becky, Darlene and D.J., as well as retaining the concept of having a younger adult in the house. Assuming Jerry isn't in his 20s already, that is.
It's harder to speculate on what kind of legitimately all-new characters would show up on Roseanne, since we don't really know where any of the characters are in their lives. Although perhaps former Becky Sarah Chalke will take on one of those roles,as she's confirmed to return not as Becky, since original actress Lecy Goranson is also returning. It's known that the whole living paycheck-to-paycheck aspect will remain intact, and that not only will the lottery-winning season get retconned, but Dan's death by heart attack will also be reversed to get John Goodman back. But that's just great news, not anything about new people, so we really need some casting news to help us along.
At this point, Roseanne's return doesn't yet have a release date, as nothing has actually come together for it. But expect some big changes there, as the new episodes will go into production in a few months, with an early 2018 bow likely. In the meantime, though, check out everything else that's heading to the small screen in the near future with our summer TV premiere schedule.
