'Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist' Movie Gets Picked up for Holiday Season on Roku

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist is getting a second chance at life! Two months after the musical comedy-drama series was canceled after just two seasons, the series will return to screens via a holiday movie, Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas, to stream exclusively on the Roku Channel this holiday season. It had previously been reported that following the series' cancellation at NBC and after attempts to move the show to NBCUniversal's Peacock were unsuccessful, Lionsgate Television, the lead studio behind the unique series, was negotiating a deal with Roku to develop a farewell feature-length film. The film is the first Roku Original feature-length film announced for The Roku Channel.

Based on the Emmy-winning show, which initially premiered back in January 2020 and centered centers on Zoey Clarke, a San Francisco-based software engineer who can understand people's feelings through "heartsongs" only she can hear, Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas will pick up where Season 2, the series finale, ended. According to the official synopsis, the film will continue "Zoey's journey as she navigates work, family, love, and everything in between." The movie will bring back the original cast — Jane Levy, Skylar Astin, Alex Newell, John Clarence Stewart, Andrew Leeds, Alice Lee, Michael Thomas Grant, Kapil Talwalkar, David St. Louis, Mary Steenburgen, Peter Gallagher, and Bernadette Peters — "bringing the same love and passion to the full-length feature film that loyal fans have come to know from the television show."

"I am so extremely grateful to The Roku Channel for helping us get Zoey to sing again. I can't think of a more appropriate time to hear someone's heart song than the holidays. And Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas will be an opportunity to provide the fans and new viewers alike a chance to all tap their toes and get in the holiday mood," creator Austin Winsberg said. "This show has always been about empathy, compassion and the triumph of the human spirit. The Roku Channel has sure lifted mine and I hope that our film can have the same effect on viewers everywhere..."

Production for Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas is scheduled to begin in Vancouver this month, with the feature-length film set to air exclusively for free on The Roku Channel in the U.S., as well as streaming on Roku in Canada and the U.K., this holiday season. The film will be written and executive produced by Winsburg, with Richard Shepard, director of the Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist pilot, directing. In addition to the film, the Roku Channel will become the official home of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist, with all 25 episodes set to be available to stream on the platform later this fall.