Your ‘Gilmore Girls’ Revival Scoop

It has been just over eight years since we last saw Lorelei (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) sipping coffee in Luke’s Diner. But since the mumblings of a reboot began last June at Texas’s ATX Festival Reunion Panel, the Gilmore Girls fandom has been abuzz about what comes next for our fast-talking, coffee-drinking, pop-culture reference dropping mother-daughter duo.

Netflix releases the teaser poster for the Gilmore Girls revival entitled “A Year in the Life” (credit: Netflix)

Flashback to this week, when Lauren Graham made a surprise appearance on Ellen to announce the title of the show’s Netflix revival: Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Appropriate, Graham says, because the revival will feature four 90-minute episodes covering each of the four seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. No doubt, the show’s original executive producers, Amy Sherman-Palladino and her husband Dan Palladino, wanted to pay tribute to two things: lyrics from Carole King’s “Where You Lead (I Will Follow)” which served as the show’s iconic theme song for all 7 seasons, and the fact that the seasons themselves play a prominent role in the show, from Lorelei’s love-hate relationship with the snow in the winter to Stars Hollow’s quirky festivals which always seem to take place in the summer and fall.

Speaking of quirky, since the revival was announced, there have also been a slew of announcements confirming which of the town’s vast array of lovable personalities will be returning, and it seems like the gang’s all here. From Rory’s best friend Lane (Keiko Agena) to Lorelei’s best friend and co-owner of the Dragonfly Inn, Sookie (played by the now infamous Melissa McCarthy who agreed to pop-by for a scene after her signals got crossed with the producers). It just wouldn’t be the same without them. For a complete list of who’s returning, check here.

The late Ed Herrmann as Richard Gilmore with his granddaughter Rory played by Alexis Bledel

Fortunately, it seems like all the big players have signed on with one notable exception. When the show returns, Ed Herrmann, who played Lorelei’s stern but loveable father and Rory’s grandfather, will be absent after his unfortunate passing back in 2014. Given that the show had always centered on Lorelei’s complicated (to say the least) relationship with her parents, it will be interesting to see how the show handles itself without the Gilmore patriarch. Inevitably, it will be a launching point for some complicated emotional struggles between the three layers of Gilmore women, from Rory to Lorelei to grandmother Emily (Kelly Bishop).

Rory had a hard decision to make when her boyfriend Logan (played by Matt Czuchry) proposed in the final season. [Credit: The CW Network]

Speaking of complicated, the show also has two big love stories to resolve. If you’re currently binge-watching the show for the first time, I suggest you put a pin in this article and come back once you’re done otherwise I might spoil a few things for you. If you’re all caught up, let’s get right down to it. In the show’s penultimate episode, Rory’s then-boyfriend Logan (played by The Good Wife‘s Matt Czuchry) proposed to her, asking her to move to California with him. Rory, being the mostly sensible person she was throughout the show, said no, heading off to follow Barack Obama on his presidential campaign trail. The question remains, then, whether Rory will regret that decision or whether she’ll end up with another one of her ex’s like her high school sweetheart Dean (Supernatural‘s Jared Paladecki) or bad boy novelist and nephew to Luke, Jess (Heroes‘ Milo Ventimiglia), or perhaps someone entirely different.

Luke (played by Scott Patterson) and Lorelei (played by Lauren Graham) get cozy as their love blossoms. [Credit: The CW Network]

And what about Lorelei? When last we saw her, her and diner owner Luke (played by Scott Patterson) shared an intense kiss after he went through the trouble of planning a rained-out going away party for Rory in the show’s series finale. The question is whether the pair will be able to come to terms with Lorelei’s marriage ultimatum followed by her hasty marriage to Rory’s dad, Christopher (David Sutcliffe) and Luke’s surprise daughter, April (Vanessa Marano). For the sake of all my fellow Dragonflies (if that’s what we’re calling ourselves), I hope so.

There is also the big mystery of the “last four words” that Sherman-Palladino said have been written since the series started but never made it into the show after contract disputes saw her and her husband parting ways with the show in it’s sixth season. They will, however, finally be aired in the revival and the true fans are dying to know what they are and who says them. In the interest of keeping this article spoiler-free, I won’t post anything about what has been revealed about the four words, except to say that Lauren Graham has said that they definitely made her emotional when she read them in the revival’s script.

With that said, it’s hard to imagine waiting any longer before we get to return to Stars Hollow. My only hope, as a loyal fan of the show, is that all is as we left it. Inevitably, things will have changed but part of what made Gilmore Girls so unique was the warmth that I felt every time I watched it. It was a show about family, whether you liked them or not, whether you chose them or were stuck with them, and for that reason I could always relate to it and felt like Stars Hollow was a place I could always come back to. No date for the revival has been announced yet, but given that the series is finishing filming now and production is set to start in June, there should be plenty more Gilmore gossip on the horizon.

What do you want out of the revival? And who do you hope Rory ends up with? Let me know in the comments, my fellow Dragonflies!