HBO has announced a five-episode revival of Girls, a comedy created by and starring Lena Dunham.
Filming is expected to begin in 2027, ten years after the show ended with its sixth season.
In the new episodes, Dunham will play Hannah, while Allison Williams will play Marnie, Jemima Kirke, Jessa, and Shoshanna, and Andrew Rannells will play Elijah.
“We always said we would only return to Girls if there were a specific story we were burning to tell,” Dunham said about her double role as the show’s creator and writer, director, and actor.
“I’ve missed these characters, but for a long time I couldn’t quite picture them in the present day,” she said. “Then, right around my 40th 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.”
“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,” Dunham added.
She confessed to loving “these girls (and boy),” the network, and the audience, which keeps finding the show and reminding its creators “why we do this, which is the joy of being together … and the chance to wear yellow mesh.”
“We’re thrilled to have Lena turn her gaze from the tumult of one’s 20s to the milestone of turning 40,” Amy Gravitt, executive vice president and head of HBO and HBO Max comedy programming, commented.
“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,” Gravitt added.
During its six seasons, Girls received 19 Emmy nominations and won two, including outstanding casting for a comedy series.
Dunham will executive-produce the new episodes along with Judd Apatow of Apatow Productions, and Ilene S. Landress and Michael P. Cohen of Good Thing Going. Williams, Kirke, Mamet, and Rannells will be the co-executive producers.
