In an age of remakes, revivals, and spinoffs, Fuller House attempted to navigate between the nostalgia for the original Full House and the expectations of a new generation. It ain’t an easy thing to fully accomplish, that’s for sure. The spinoff had a decent run of five seasons, with the final season released last June on Netflix. The actors who played D.J. Tanner, Stephanie, Uncle Joey and most of the rest of the gang came back, but Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, the stars behind Michelle Tanner, were notably absent. Now, John Stamos has shared how he really felt about the Olsen twins not coming back for Fuller House, specifically the final season.
His thoughts on the matter aren’t too outrageous and definitely not surprising. The veteran actor has a very close bond with the Olsen family, who he watched over as their fictional uncle for eight years. To mark the release of Marvel's WandaVision, he even recently posted a throwback picture of their sister Elizabeth Olsen on the set of Full House. When asked on Watch What Happens Live if he was surprised the Olsen twins didn’t reprise their joint role as Michelle Tanner in Fuller House, Stamos said:
You know, we were disappointed, but we understood, I remember Lori Loughlin saying to me, ‘They won two or three CFDA Awards. That’s like winning two or three Oscars. If you won three Oscars, would you come back and do this?’ I was like, ‘Eh, maybe not.'
I guess with that kind of logic, we can’t blame the Olsen twins, either, for not returning for Fuller House. The twins don’t exactly need the money, publicity, or acclaim. Both own joint ownership of the Dualstar company, which has reportedly propelled their net worth to roughly half a billion dollars over the years. They have also parlayed their preteen popularity into formidable figures in high fashion.
Yet for longtime fans of Full House, the show that jumpstarted the Olsen twins’ fame, it was kind of a letdown that the two declined to reprise Michelle because of their long hiatus from acting and the current focus on their fashion careers. Fuller House managed to play off their absence with a joke but, given the success the sisters have found, it was probably for that the best the Olsen twins chose to stay in their current lane.
According to John Stamos though, the filming for the Fuller House series finale was still plenty emotional. Perhaps because things were ending for good this time or perhaps because he was juggling filming for D.J.’s wedding and his new Disney+ series Big Shot simultaneously. The past decade has seen somewhat of a Stamos resurgence, if you will, with his surprising turns in younger/popular shows like Glee, Scream Queens, and Netflix’s stalker-thriller series You.
If we can’t get the grown-up Olsen twins to regurgitate “Aw, nuts!” for nostalgia purposes, then at least we can still appreciate the je ne sais quoi of the John Stamos eye twinkle.
Fuller House is available to stream on Netflix.
