Gilmore Girls became a pop culture phenomenon when it premiered in 2000. Over the course of 7 seasons, we fell in love with Lorelai, Rory, and the rest of the Stars Hollow citizens. The original series came to an end in 2007, but the Gilmore girls weren’t done yet.
A four-part miniseries, Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life, premiered in November 2016 on Netflix. The show was set during the four seasons, taking us through a year in the lives of Lorelai, Rory, Emily, and everyone in between. Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life gave us those last four words, but the ending left it wide open for a season 2. From the current plans to what the cast has said, here’s everything we know so far about a possible Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life season 2.
Potential Season 2 Revival
Netflix has currently not made any official announcement about season 2 of Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. However, that doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO and chief content officer of Netflix, was impressed by the show’s success and kept the door open for a season 2.
“We hope [there are more installments],” he told the UK’s press association in March 2017. “We obviously loved the success of the show, fans loved how well it was done, it delivered what they hoped… The worst thing is to wait a couple of years for your favorite show to come back and for it to disappoint you, but they sure delivered and people were really excited about more, and we have been talking to them about the possibility of that.”
Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, along with her husband and TV partner, Daniel Palladino, currently has a multi-year deal at Amazon. Amy, being the genius she is, has the ability to go back to Netflix to make a season 2 if the timing is right. However, limited series are often only a single season.
“We carved out a little niche for ourselves with Amazon saying that if we ever want to do it, if the girls and us get together and we have a concept that works, then we have the freedom to do it,” she told Radio Times. “So it would just have to be the right circumstances, and that we’re all sort of in the same drunken mood together to go repaint Stars Hollow again. Because we had to repaint Stars Hollow, and we’ll have to repaint it again. But it’s definitely possible.”
Amy hasn’t said what Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life would look like, but it would definitely have us returning to Stars Hollow and following Rory’s motherhood journey. Rory becoming a mother would bring the show full circle, with Lorelai by her side every step of the way.
Season 1 Recap
Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life season 1 picks up almost a decade after the Gilmore Girls series finale. Richard Gilmore has sadly passed away, and the three Gilmore girls are mourning his death in their own way.
Rory Gilmore is now a freelance journalist and working on a book proposal. She’s also dating a guy named Paul. When she’s in London, she’s staying and sleeping with Logan Huntzberger, who is now engaged to be married.
Meanwhile, Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes have been dating for a decade, but they haven’t married or discussed the idea of children. In the wake of Richard’s death and a fight with Emily and Rory, Lorelai goes on a hiking trip to clear her head.
When she returns, Lorelai asks Luke to marry her. They get married in the gazebo that’s in the middle of Stars Hollow. Emily sells the Gilmore home and decides to move to Nantucket.
The final scene of the show features those coveted final four words that every Gilmore Girls fan had wanted to know since 2007. Rory sits down with her mother in the gazebo and breaks some very important news to her. “Mom?” Rory asks. Lorelai replies, “Yeah?” Rory says, “I’m pregnant.”
The father of Rory’s baby isn’t revealed in the miniseries. Rory does get a breakup text from Paul, who is never seen in the series. Many fans assume Logan is the father of Rory’s baby because of their affair. Unless there’s a season 2, we’ll never know!
Season 2 Cast
If season 2 of Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life does happen, it would be when Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino, the creative team behind Gilmore Girls, feel it’s right. The show would have to star Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel. Both actresses, being at the heart of the show as Lorelai and Rory, would have to reprise their roles. It’s not Gilmore Girls without the Gilmore girls!
Another season of the Netflix revival would likely bring back Kelly Bishop as Emily Gilmore and Scott Patterson as Luke Danes. Other key cast members like Keiko Agena, Matt Czuchry, Liza Weil, Yanic Truesdale, Melissa McCarthy, Milo Ventimiglia, and more could return as well.
Season 2 would also likely feature Rory’s daughter or son. The show could do a time jump and follow Rory’s kid growing up in Stars Hollow. The possibilities are endless!
Cast Interviews About Season 2
Lauren Graham was initially sold on the idea of reprising her role as Lorelai Gilmore in another season of the show. “I don’t know if there is a need to do more. I would never want it to feel like we overstayed our welcome,” she said during Deadline’s The Contenders Emmys panel in April 2017. “There’s probably a way to keep these characters alive, but I don’t know if that’s the best thing for them.”
As for Alexis Bledel, she is open to the idea of coming back as Rory. “I think for me it comes down to what story we’re telling,” she said on the panel. “I’m just interested in telling a story that is dynamic and that I sort of relate to and can hook into. And if that happens … I don’t know. It’s such an unknown, I don’t think we anticipated that this would happen.”
In the years since the first season, Lauren has changed her tune about another season. “I don’t ever say never,” she told Collider in April 2021. “I still talk to Amy and Kelly and Alexis. There is not a plan for it. Everyone is doing their own thing. If that came up again, I love that character so much and I love Amy. I will work with her, anytime. It would just be a matter of responsibility to the fans and what we could give them that’s deserving of their devotion, or should it just live in reruns. So, I don’t know.”
Matt Czuchry actually knows who the father of Rory’s baby is, but there’s a reason he’s never told anyone. “Amy and Dan, they told me who the father of the baby was, and they said, ‘Yeah, you can tell whoever you want.’ And I never have because one, that’s for them to say,” Matt told Us Weekly in January 2021. “Ultimately this is Amy and Dan’s show and it’s Lauren’s show and it’s Alexis’ show. It’s not mine. And so, for me, it doesn’t feel like the right place to say who it may or may not be. Also, if we do come back, they may change their minds. So it could become somebody else. Those are the reasons why I’ve never said what they told me on set.”
Amy Sherman-Palladino gave an update about the possible second season of the Netflix revival in October 2020. “There’s no [obstacle] behind it except for lives and people doing [other] things,” she said during the Woodstock Film Festival virtual panel discussion. “[A Year in the Life] was one of those kismet moments where we were kind of all looking at each other and going, ‘Well, let’s take a couple of months and hang out together and remind each other why we drove each other crazy.’ And it was a wonderful experience. I really do believe that if the time is right and the girls are where they need to be in their lives [it could happen].”
Scott Patterson told HollywoodLife that he is “optimistic” about a second season of the Gilmore Girls revival because of that Rory baby cliffhanger.
“You need that cliffhanger if you want to keep people engaged,” Scott told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY in May 2021. “Obviously, there was a reason that they did that, so that’s why I feel, and I’m optimistic, that there’s going to be more episodes. Because they wouldn’t have just done that and left it and ended the series. That would be a dirty trick, right? We have to find out, and we’re going to find out.”
Kelly Bishop, who played the beloved Emily Gilmore, would be open to reprising the role if the limited series continued. However, she’s unsure if it will ever happen.
“I honestly think it’s very unlikely that kind of a situation could be pulled together because so many of the important actors in it, they’ve all gone their separate ways and have other projects and other things to do,” she told Town & Country in 2021. “It would have to be like a continuation of those four extra episodes, but I just don’t see it happening. And I don’t see Amy being interested in it, because Mrs. Maisel is such a huge hit and deservedly so. I just don’t see her wanting to go back and revisit it. We all loved it, and there might be some opportunity, but it doesn’t seem too likely. But sure, I’d play her again. I’d love to.”