‘Party Down’ Boss Explains Why Lizzy Caplan’s Absence In The Revival Is A ‘Mixed Blessing’ (Exclusive)

'Party Down' co-creator John Enbom addresses why Lizzy Caplan is missing from the revival season in this EXCLUSIVE interview.

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Party Down is returning for newly-revived third season on February 24 over 12 years after the catering company sitcom was canceled by Starz. All of the original cast members are back for the new season except Lizzy Caplan, who played Casey Klein, the love interest of Adam Scott‘s Henry Pollard, because of scheduling issues. But Party Down co-creator John Enbom told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY that Lizzy’s absence was actually a “mixed blessing”, and he explained why.

Lizzy Caplan
Lizzy Caplan in ‘Party Down’ (Photo: Colleen Hayes / © Starz / Courtesy Everett Collection)

We asked John which of the characters’ stories in the revival was the hardest to map out. “A lot of it was sort of projected from the first two seasons. We saw hints, for instance, what Adam’s character was considering doing. We saw at the end what happened to Constance and all that sort of stuff,” he said. John then explained how Lizzy not being unable to return as Casey may have actually benefited those creating the new season of the Starz show.

“I think the hardest was maybe when we started to think about, ‘Oh what’s going to happen to Lizzy Caplan’s character?’ But then she was the one who had the conflicts that she could not join us,” John said about the Mean Girls star. “Mixed blessing for us, because she was the one who had the most complicated return story. But we’ll save that for season 4,” he added.

Party Down
The ‘Party Down’ season 3 cast (Photo: Colleen Hayes / © Starz / Courtesy Everett Collection)

The six-episode revival season of Party Down revisits the beloved Los Angeles-based caterers who are now in their 40s. The returning cast members include Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino, Megan Mullally, Martin Starr, and Ryan Hansen. Jennifer Garner and James Marsden are among the new cast members.

While John did mentioned a possible fourth season, which Lizzy could hopefully come back for, he did confirm to HL that there’s no definitive plans for the future of Party Down just yet.

“We certainly have thoughts, but there are no plans in motion at this point,” he said. “It was certainly a lift to get this up and running. I’m sure we would love to do more, but we certainly have not yet had those conversations. Soon, hopefully.”