HBO Has Engaged in ‘Informal Talks’ to Bring Back a Major Show

Lena Dunham is planning her return. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Dunham discussed her upcoming film Sharp Stick, which she directed and has a supporting role, and also touched upon Girls, the HBO show that made her a household name. The divisive dramedy premiered in 2012 when Dunham, who was also the showrunner and a frequent director, was just 25. Due to health issues and public backlash, Dunham has been laying low in recent years, but she’s ready to be back to work.

“I just realized that the experience of Girls and my 20s was such an all-encompassing hurricane of both validation and derision that in order for me to keep that place of myself that loved to make art, that was what needed to happen,” Dunham explained about her time away. “I wasn’t some teenager who was like, ‘I’m going to be a TV star,’” she says. “I was a weird theater and poetry kid. I literally thought I was going to be a film teacher at my old high school and make experimental movies on the side.”

“I look back, and just, like, the sheer gall of me, stepping onto set that first day; 24-year-old me standing in Silver Cup Studios, the old Sex and the City studios, going, ‘Let’s do this.’ I’m proud of myself,” Dunham said about her Girls pitch to HBO. With the return of Carrie Bradshaw and co. for And Just Like That, Dunham also entertained the idea of Girls returning to show what Hannah (Dunham), Marnie (Alison Williams), Jessa (Jemima Kirke), Shosanna (Zosia Mamet), and Adam (Adam Driver), are up to at a different stage of their lives. She revealed that she had even engaged in “informal talks” about a reboot with HBO. “It was such a pleasure to see those women back together and to see them take on middle-aged sexuality,” Dunham said of And Just Like That. “For me, those are women who can do no wrong.”

However, that won’t happen anytime soon. Dunham knows that “it’s not time yet,” adding, “I want it to be at a moment when the characters’ lives have really changed. Right now, everyone would just be wanting to see Kylo Ren.”

“As proud of the show as we are, there aren’t any plans to bring Girls back,” added chief content officer of HBO and HBO Max Casey Bloys. “It’s great to know new viewers will continue to discover the [original] series.”