With any hugely successful show, fans remain hopeful that the end of a series is less of a “goodbye” and more of a “see you later.” Gilmore Girls fans are certainly no different. Where you lead, we will follow, especially after the pregnancy bomb that Rory dropped in the waning seconds of “Fall,” the fourth and final installment in the series’ 2016 Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Milo Ventimiglia, who’s currently on set of the final season of This Is Us, discussed the possibility of doing more Gilmore Girls after he wraps his six-season arc as Pearson patriarch Jack on the NBC drama.
On the I Am All In podcast, Milo Ventimiglia seemed to have mixed feelings about jumping back into the character of bad boy Jess, who dated Rory for part of the show’s original run and reconnected with her as friends in the revival. Ventimiglia told podcast host Scott Patterson, who played Jess’ uncle and Lorelei love interest Luke, that he’d “be a jerk” to pass up the opportunity to do more Gilmore Girls.
I can’t ever get away from it. For me, knowing that you and Lauren [Graham] and Alexis [Bledel] and probably just about everybody else on the show would show up, and on top of it, it would probably be Dan [Palladino] and Amy [Sherman-Palladino] there writing their asses off, it’s like, yeah why wouldn’t I?
Hold on one second, Gilmore fandom, maybe don’t start celebrating just yet. While Milo Ventimiglia was open to the idea, he cautioned against shows coming back without new stories to tell or character growth to show. He also said he hopes his post-This Is Us career allows him the opportunity to play different characters.
The way that I look at it was the four films that were put together after the fact, that felt like the extra slice of cake after you already had cake. You had that favorite meal, you had the cake, and then you got something even extra. I don’t know if they would bring it back, or in the form that maybe people would want? Because I’m also big on, hey, we’re artists and we’re actors and we evolve, and we grow. Yes, we play these parts, and they may be iconic and they may be evergreen, but at the same time, I look forward to playing a lot of different men over the course of my career.
So while it sounds like Milo Ventimiglia would be on board to return for more Gilmore Girls, I’m not sure that’s the path he’d prefer to take in his career. Look at it this way: If Ventimiglia had limited himself solely to the role of Jess Mariano, the world would have been robbed of him as Jack Pearson, and I may be Team Jess, but I am also 100% Team Jack. So while I suppose it would be okay for Ventimiglia to do (sigh) different projects, we can hold tight to the fact that if the Palladinos ever do decide to write more over-caffeinated dialogue for Lorelei and Rory, Jess is on board to return.
Gilmore Girls' original seven seasons and the A Year in the Life revival are available for streaming on Netflix. This Is Us will return to NBC for its sixth and final season in 2022. Be sure to check out our 2021 Fall TV Schedule so you don’t miss the upcoming premieres of any of your favorite shows!
