Major ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Star Open to Returning for Revival

Orange Is the New Black alum Danielle Brooks is ready to report back to Litchfield Penitentiary.

Nearly six years after the hit Netflix original series wrapped its seven-season run, the actress said she “would sign on the dotted line any day” to reprise her role as Tasha “Taystee” Jefferson in an Orange Is the New Black revival.

“I would sign on the dotted line any day,” Brooks, 35, told host Alex Jones when asked about a potential revival on the Thursday, March 27 episode of The One Show. “I loved working with everyone. We were truly sisters and we made really good work together. Fingers crossed.”

Based on Piper Kerman’s memoir of the same name, Orange Is the New Black starred Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman, a privileged New Yorker who finds herself in a women’s prison after she is convicted of felonious money-laundering activities. The show chronicled the lives of Piper and her fellow inmates, and also starred Laura Prepon, Uzo Aduba, Natasha Lyonne, Samira Wiley, Kate Mulgrew, Taryn Manning, and Yael Stone. Brooks appeared throughout the series as Tasytee, whose character in the final season attempts to have her wrongful second-degree murder conviction overturned.

Airing for seven seasons from 2013 until 2019, Orange Is the New Black remains a standout among Netflix originals. Although a revival isn’t currently in the works, it’s an idea that has been floated since even before the show ended in 2019. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in November 2018, Lionsgate TV Group chairman Kevin Beggs revealed of a possible spinoff, “we’re already in discussions and, when the timing is right, we’ll talk further with Jenji [Kohan] about a potential sequel.”

However, little has come of those talks so far, with show creator Jenji Kohan later telling The Guardian in 2019 that she was “done with darkness and dystopia” and “it was time for release.” Meanwhile, Prepon, who starred as Alex Vausse, told PopCulture.com in 2021, “I don’t think [Jenji] wants to do that… I think she wants to see some daylight… We’ll see what happens but Jenji is just — her mind and her writing, oh man, she’s so great.”

As of now, there are no active plans for an Orange Is the New Black revival. All seven seasons of the Emmy-winning series are available to stream on Netflix.