Miranda Cosgrove Explains Why ‘iCarly’ Reboot Keeps Mentioning Jennette McCurdy’s Character Sam

The reboot of iCarly premiered on Paramount+ last month without one of the original show’s central characters, Jennette McCurdy’s Sam Puckett. McCurdy announced earlier this year that she has retired from acting, though the reboot has been mentioning Sam often.

In a new interview with Entertainment Tonight, Miranda Cosgrove, who stars on the show as the titular Carly Shay, explained the reasoning behind the show’s decision, sharing that she’s happy Sam and Carly’s friendship is being honored. “I really like the most recent episode because we mentioned the Sam character and how Carly has a car that they bought together and it always makes her think of her friendship with Sam,” Cosgrove said, referencing the recent episode “iCan Fix It Myself.” “I can totally relate to that in real life because I didn’t want to get rid of my first car at all, the car that I got when I was 16. I was so sentimental about it, so I definitely related to the character in that episode.”

“And I would even drive around, when I was younger, with Jennette and we’d go through McDonald’s and do a bunch of fun stuff,” she continued. “So it was very kind of meta, I guess because it’s a lot like real life.”

iCarly has already been renewed for a second season on Paramount+, and Cosgrove said that “the door’s always open” should McCurdy ever decide that she wants to appear on the reboot. “I don’t think that she has seen the show since it aired,” the 28-year-old said of her former co-star. “I’m not sure if she will or not, but I’d love to know, if she ever does watch it, if she likes it or what she thinks of it.”

In March, McCurdy shared on her podcast, Empty Inside, that she had quit acting in 2017. “I quit a few years ago because I initially didn’t want to do it. My mom [Debra McCurdy] put me in it when I was six and by sort of age, I guess, 10 or 11, I was the main financial support for my family,” she said. “My family didn’t have a lot of money, and this was the way out, which I actually think was helpful in driving me to some degree of success.”

“Always, always, always, acting was difficult for me,” she continued. “Once I started to get the nerves under control was when I started to actually get some traction, but I ultimately quit after my mom passed away [in 2013] because with her death kind of died a lot of her ideas for my life, and that was its own journey, and a difficult one for sure.” The iCarly reboot is currently airing on Paramount+, which you can subscribe to with a free trial here.

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