The creator of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist reveals that Lauren Graham almost returned for the Christmas wrap-up movie. After being canceled by NBC in June, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist was revived as a Christmas movie by The Roku Channel. Premiering on December 1, with the title of Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, the holiday special takes place after the events of the season 2 finale and sees Zoey celebrating the first holiday without her father — still she attempts to capture that Christmas spirit, just like her father used to do. Jane Levy reprised the title role, along with other main and recurring cast members from the NBC series.
Graham, who played Zoey’s boss at SPRQ Point, did not appear in Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas. A regular cast member in the first season of the NBC show, Graham exited Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist at the beginning of season 2 due to scheduling conflicts with her leading role on the Disney+ series The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers. As a result, in her final appearance, Joan moves to Singapore to begin the next phase of her career and, before she leaves, she promotes Zoey to her old position. Still, with the Roku revival, and with so many familiar faces coming back, there was hope that the fan-favorite character of Joan would be back for the movie.
Austin Winsberg, the creator and executive producer of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, revealed to TVLine that he considered bringing back Graham as he was writing the follow-up movie. But he found that it was difficult to balance Joan’s story with the overall family-centric focus of Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas. He goes on to note that he also thought of featuring Joan in a post-credits cameo which would, in the style of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, carry on into the next movie. But, ultimately, that didn’t work out either. You can read Winsberg’s quote below.
“I don’t feel like it’s really justice to her or the character to bring her back in some sort of cameo capacity. So I knew I would have needed to do a big story with Joan, and I just felt like the movie’s really family-centric, and it was hard, as we were breaking it, to think of a full story for Joan that could also lend itself to the 90-page thing that we were trying to do, while still focusing on the family and some of the other storylines. It just didn’t feel like we had the room for it. I wish we could have figured out a way to make it work. I actually had an idea for a big end credits, Marvel-like scene, where I did bring Lauren back, that would have kind of ‘dot-dot-dotted’ into what could potentially be the next movie. But we weren’t able to make it work at the end of the day.”
Graham, well-known for her portrayal of Lorelai Gilmore on The Gilmore Girls, was a big aspect of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist's appeal during season 1 and her friendship with the show grew to be one of its most endearing aspects. It makes sense that Winsberg would be careful not to include the character without a clear plan for what to do with her especially if, as it has been suggested, the world of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist could continue with more movies. Or, alternatively, it may return as an ongoing series.
That depends on the success of the Christmas movie, which has largely been received positively among fans of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. Perhaps future installments, if they do happen, will veer away from the family, holiday focus to shed more light on the ongoings at SPRQ Point and Zoey’s career aspirations. That premise could potentially allow Joan to take center stage, rather than simply a brief cameo that may not get resolved.
Source: TVLine
