TV

Roxane Gay Wants To Write For ‘The L Word’ Sequel And We Are Here For It

Bette, Shane and Alice are all on board!

by Matilda Dixon-Smith  13 July 2017
The L Word

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Grab the keys to your Subaru Forester and head over to The Planet, because your favourite lesbian melodrama, Showtime’s iconic The L Word, is returning to our screens. News has just broken that the show’s creator, Ilene Chaiken, has signed a deal with Showtime to produce a ‘sequel’ to the series!

And guess who wants to write for it? Academic and author Roxane Gay, ie your best friend and mine also, has put up her hand via Twitter to write for Chaiken’s new The L Word.

And, seriously, I can’t imagine anything better than Gay’s brilliant writing, and her contemporary queer perspective, perking up a 2010s version of The L Word — which, as much as we all love it, remains deeply 2000s, especially the clothes and haircuts.

The buzz is that the new L Word will introduce series stars (ie the dream team) Jennifer Beals (Bette), Kate Moennig (Shane) and Leisha Hailey (Alice) to a new ensemble of women, who will become the main focus of the sequel. Which makes sense, because as iconic as the original is, the world has changed and evolved a great deal for queer women since it began airing in 2004.

As Beals said, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “We’ve got to go back on because we are needed”.

Along with this new ensemble of women, sources say that although Chaiken will serve as an Executive Producer on the series (while Beals, Moennig and Hailey will act as producers), she will be seeking out fresh voices, with a strong connection to the contemporary lesbian community, to serve as new writers, EPs and showrunners on the series. And, legit, Gay could very well be that person!

Since The L Word ended in 2009, Chaiken’s star has risen dramatically. She serves as the showrunner on Fox’s supremely extra soap opera Empire, and is also an EP on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale. that’s a lot of work for one TV creator, so it’s not surprising that Chaiken is seeking help from new writers to re-launch the series.

And Gay isn’t the only one putting her hand up to join the writers room. Other comedians and writers are vying to be part of the sequel series.

The L Word is not only great, it’s also a very important and beloved queer show that helped shape the way the LGBTQIA+ community is represented on television. So, after a lot of initial speculation, fans are absolutely wild for news that a reboot is in the works.

And though the rumours are flying about which other ensemble cast members will return, there’s no official word on who will appear in the new series. So, if you’re like me, and you love to hate Mia Kirshner’s severely basic Jenny, you’ll have to wait to hear if she’ll return to the gang in the sequel.

But seriously, if we get to see what 2018 Shane would wear, damn, that’s enough for me.

 

The L Word

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You can catch up on all six seasons of The L Word on Netflix in advance of the upcoming sequel, the air date for which is yet to be announced. 

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Matilda Dixon-Smith is Junkee’s Staff Writer. She tweets at @mdixonsmith.

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