The announcement
HBO announced on Tuesday, 13 October, that Girls will return with a five-episode season, nearly a decade after the series' last episode. The news came in a video posted on HBO's Instagram account, which shows Lena Dunham on a staged video call with the original cast, asking whether they would want to make the show again. Andrew Rannells joined the call and answered with a joke:
I'm in, but only because you trash cans need constant supervision.
Production is set to begin in 2027, and no premiere date has been announced.
- Series premieres on HBO
- Final episode of the original run airs
- HBO announces five-episode return
- Production scheduled to begin
Who is returning
Dunham will again play Hannah Horvath, the neurotic aspiring writer at the centre of the show. She is joined by Allison Williams as Marnie Michaels, Jemima Kirke as Jessa Johansson, Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna Shapiro and Andrew Rannells as Elijah Krantz. Judd Apatow returns as executive producer. Adam Driver, who played Hannah's on-and-off partner Adam Sackler, was not named in the announcement, and it is not yet known whether he will take part. Driver later became known for his roles in the Star Wars films.
Dunham's memoir Famesick, published in April, described Driver as sometimes aggressive on set. Driver has not responded to those passages. Dunham's more recent work includes Too Much, a Netflix series about an American woman in her 30s who moves to London.
Dunham's account of the return
In a statement, Dunham said the cast had always agreed to return only for a specific story they were eager to tell. She had missed the characters but could not picture them in the present day for a long time. Then, just before her 40th birthday, the characters began talking to her in the shower. Dunham said that once this group starts talking, it is difficult to silence them.
The series and its record
Girls followed four friends in their twenties in New York and drew attention for its frank depiction of sex, which was controversial at the time. Over six seasons it earned 19 Emmy nominations and won two, and Dunham won a Golden Globe for her acting in 2013. The show also launched the careers of several cast members, including Driver.
The announcement comes shortly after the merger of Paramount and Warner Bros, under which HBO fell, into the Skydance media conglomerate. HBO has survived earlier mergers as a standalone production house, but how the film, television and streaming industry will look next year remains uncertain.