‘Party Down’ Stars Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr On New Season Being a ‘Continuation’ Not ‘Revival’ (Exclusive)

Party Down Season 3 recently kicked off on Starz, and two of the show’s cast members — Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr — want fans to know that it is a “continuation” of the show, “not a revival.” PopCulture.com had a chance to speak with Hansen and Starr ahead of the series debut, which they pointed out gives “some winks” to the series being a bit of a satire. “I even say, I think in the trailer it says, I’m like, ‘Now this is a Party Down reunion,’” Hansen quipped.

The new season of brings back not only Hansen and Starr as Kyle Bradway and Roman DeBeers, respectively, but also Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, and Megan Mullally. It also features series newcomers Tyrel Jackson Williams and Zoë Chao, who join as new catering teammates. Interestingly, Chao’s character, Lucy, is a deeply fascinatingly creative chef, who could potentially be a bit of a philosophical contender of Roman, who is certainly the most cerebral of the Party Down crew.

“There’s a crazed mania behind her eyes, which is really fun to explore, for sure,” Starr said of Chao’s Lucy. “I hope that we get to do that more. I hope we get to do more seasons and figure out what that is. But I feel like there’s a grounded… I was going to say grounded sanity to Roman. But I also think he’s completely insane. So it’s hard to call that sanity. But he does have his feet on the ground in the worst possible way ’cause he is living a pretty s— life.”

Starr continued, “He still thinks himself to be more grandiose than he actually is. Yeah, there is something fun to play in there. I guess I had never thought of them as competitors in any way.” Hansen then joked, “We weren’t going to tell Martin this, but this was how we were getting Martin out for Zoë.”

We also had a chance to speak with Chao and Williams, and we asked about which of their co-stars were most similar or least similar to their on-screen counterparts, a question they were comically hesitant to answer “because all the characters are insane.” Eventually, Chao replied, “Ryan is insane as a human person. He is… As a human person. As a real person. He’s so nuts, in the best way. He’s so funny. He’s so funny in the show, I didn’t anticipate Ryan being so… He’s consistently so funny and so kind and sweet with everybody, and just a real leader on set.”

Finally, she quipped, “Words fail me when I try to explain how good a dancer Ryan is,” which Jackson wholeheartedly agreed with. “When he looks back at— just ask him about looking back at it,” she added. Party Down Season 3 airs new episodes on Fridays at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Starz, and on the STARZ app.