Start building up your caffeine tolerance and grab your best mug—after several months of (occasionally harrowing) rumors, Netflix confirmed Friday afternoon that a “final season” of Gilmore Girls will find a home on the streaming-and-chill platform.
The original series, which aired for seven seasons from 2000-2007, followed Lorelai Gilmore, her daughter Rory, and the residents of Stars Hollow—the show’s fictional New England town. Now, nine years later, creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is returning to the helm as executive producer, joined by her husband Daniel Palladino (also an EP). Together, they’ll write and direct all of the episodes in this final season.
Netflix confirmed that many of the original series’ core cast members are returning, including Lauren Graham (who played Lorelai Gilmore), Alexis Bledel (Rory Gilmore), Kelly Bishop (Emily Gilmore), Scott Patterson (Luke Danes), Sean Gunn (Kirk Gleason), and Keiko Agena (Lane Kim).
Notable exclusions from the list, however, include Liza Weil (Paris Gellar), Yanic Truesdale (Michel Gerard), and Luke’s ever-present baseball cap. But the latter, at least, is a good bet. Less clear? Melissa McCarthy, once Lorelai’s friend Sookie St. James, now a movie star.
There’s no final word on the title or premiere date for the season, and Netflix hasn’t yet doled out confirmed details on number of episodes or where, exactly, this final season fits into the Gilmore Girlsiverse. Will Luke and Lorelei find their happy ending nearly a decade later? What becomes of Luke’s Diner? Is Lane touring the world and making some boy with long hair carry her drums?
No matter the events of the final season, though, there’s one issue Sherman-Palladino must solve, and that’s the problem of Rory’s Exes. All intolerable in their own right (yes, even Jess), they displayed varying degrees of awfulness but shared a single common trait in that none of them deserved Rory. If the new season’s going to win hearts and make itself a worthy successor, Gilmore Girls must finally find Rory a worthy partner or—God forbid—no partner at all.
Predictably, fans have plenty to say about the confirmed Gilmore Girls revival, but Netflix’s Twitter feed just might’ve said it best:
