The voice of a generation is returning to TV.
HBO has greenlit a revival of Lena Dunham’s hit sitcom Girls, with plans for a limited, five-episode run, Variety reported on Tuesday, October 13. Production on the series will begin in 2027.
The four core cast members of the hit HBO series are set to return, including Dunham, 40, as Hannah Horvath, Allison Williams as Marnie Michaels, Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna Shapiro and Jemima Kirke as Jessa Johansson. Andrew Rannells will return in his supporting role as Elijah Krantz.
Judd Apatow is also slated to return as executive producer on behalf of Apatow Productions, along with Dunham, Ilene S. Landress and Michael P. Cohen of Dunham’s Good Thing Going. Williams, 38, Mamet, 38, Rannells, 48, and Kirke, 41, are also co-executive producers.
“We always said we would only return to Girls if there was a specific story we were burning to tell,” Dunham said in a statement. “I’ve missed these characters, but for a long time I couldn’t quite picture them in the present day. Then, right around my fortieth birthday, they started talking to me in the shower. And, as you may remember, once this fivesome starts talking, it’s pretty hard to get them to stop …”
Dunham continued, “It’s rare that you get the chance to return to something that changed your life with the gift of hindsight and a whole new level of gratitude and understanding. I love these girls (and boy), our friends at HBO and all the people who have continued to discover the show and remind us afresh why we do this, which is the joy of being together… and the chance to wear yellow mesh…”
Girls ran on HBO from 2012 to 2017. The series chronicled the lives of a group of 20-something friends in New York City.
“We’re thrilled to have Lena turn her gaze from the tumult of one’s twenties to the milestone of turning 40,” Amy Gravitt, executive vice president and head of HBO & HBO Max comedy programming, said in a statement on Tuesday. “To say the world has changed since we last saw Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna, Jessa and Elijah is a massive understatement, but we know fans — old and new — will be happy to see how they’ve grown and relieved to see that they’re still the ‘Girls’ we knew way back when.”
The original Girls cast also featured Christopher Abbott, Alex Karpovsky, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Jake Lacy and others.
Notably absent from the revival are Dunham’s costar Adam Driver and co-showrunner and executive producer Jenni Konner, both of whom were discussed in Dunham’s memoir, Famesick, in April.
Dunham alleged in the book that Driver, 42, was “verbally aggressive, condescending and physically imposing.” The Marriage Story star addressed the accusations at the Cannes Film Festival in May, telling reporters, “I have no comment on any of that. I’m saving it all for my book.”
Meanwhile, Dunham claimed that she felt pressured by Konner, 55, to negotiate equal salaries even though she was the sole creator of the show. Konner has not publicly responded to the claims.
