‘The Conners’: 3 More ‘Roseanne’ Alums Join Spinoff

Three more Conners have been added to the ABC Roseanne spinoff. TVLine reports that Emma Kenney, Ames McNamara and Jayden Rey — the grandkids — are officially on board for The Conners as series regulars.

“The Conners are a family of acceptance and loyalty and I feel blessed to be able to help tell their story,” said Kenney, who plays Darlene and David’s daughter Harris. “I’m really excited to start this new chapter in mine and Harris’ life.”

While Kenney and McNamara (Mark) were already series regulars in the Roseanne revival, the news means that Rey (DJ’s daughter Mary) is getting a promotion from a guest star in season 10 to a recurring character in the spinoff.

Kenny, McNamara and Rey join fellow returning cast members John Goodman (Dan), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Lecy Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (DJ).

The Conners was ordered for a full 10-episode season this summer after ABC canceled Roseanne and fired Roseanne Barr, the star and creator of the classic sitcom, following a racist tweet from Barr. The Conners, first announced in June and set to premiere Tuesday, Oct. 16, will pick up after a “sudden turn of events” as “the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.”

While it’s not currently clear if the show will address the fact that the family matriarch is missing, Goodman fueled rumors this week that the show would kill her off when he told The Sunday Times that his character Dan will be depressed.

“It’s an unknown. I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead,” Goodman told the The Sunday Times.

Elsewhere in the interview, Goodman said he was left “broken-hearted” by Barr’s firing, insisting that the 65-year-old actress is “not a racist.”

“[B]ut I thought, ‘OK, it’s just show business, I’m going to let it go,’” Goodman said about Barr’s firing. “But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed. I’m a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit.”

“I know for a fact that she’s not a racist,” he said. “I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response. And that’s probably all I should say about it,” he said, referring to ABC’s decision to fire Barr.

The Conners premieres Tuesday, Oct. 16 on ABC in the same 8 p.m. ET time slot Roseanne held last spring.