The new Paramount+ reboot of iCarly might be missing Jennette McCurdy as Sam, but her former co-stars Miranda Cosgrove, Jerry Trainor and Nathan Kress told Entertainment Tonight the door is open “anytime” for her to return. McCurdy retired from acting years back, admitting in March she was “embarrassed” of her early roles, which included iCarly‘s Sam, but her former Nickelodeon castmates said they were more than happy to bring her character back into the fray when it comes to the reboot.
“We talk a lot about the Sam character and where she is in the pilot episode,” Cosgrove explained of accounting for McCurdy’s absence in the new series. “And Carly very much still loves Sam and always will. And we all really wanted Jennette to be a part of the show in real life. But she’s just doing other things and we’re really happy for her. But yeah, we’re definitely going to touch on that in the show.”
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Trainor added that Sam’s absence “will be addressed,” but it isn’t a major plot point “because we just want to respect Jennette’s wishes.” He continued that McCurdy is “doing great in her own world” since moving on from acting and everyone is “super proud of her,” but that her decision not to return opens up the show to adding new characters and storylines, including Laci Mosley as Carly’s best friend Harper and Jaidyn Triplett as Freddie’s stepdaughter Millicent.
When Trainor quipped that the “elevator door is always open” for McCurdy’s return, Kress noted, “It never closed,” adding, “But again, we want to be respectful of her and the decisions that she’s made and no pressure, of course. But whatever she wants to do. We love her and that’s all she needs to know.”
McCurdy previously explained her decision to retire from acting on her podcast, Empty Inside, saying in March, “My experience with acting is, I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past. I resent my career in a lot of ways. I feel so unfulfilled by the roles that I played and felt like it was the most cheesy, embarrassing. I did the shows that I was on from like 13 to 21, and by 15, I was already embarrassed.” iCarly is available to stream on Paramount+, which can be subscribed to with a free trial here.
