New details about the Gilmore Girls spinoff that never was have come to light. One of the show’s writers, Stan Zimmerman, looked back on the scrapped series (titled Windward Circle) with People, and shed light on why it never got off the ground.
The Gilmore Girls Season 3 episode “Here Comes the Sun” was intended as a back-door pilot for a spinoff centred on Jess Mariano (played by Milo Ventimiglia) as he moved to live in Venice, California. However, the show was never green-lit, despite enthusiasm from Gilmore Girls creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino.
Zimmerman revealed in his People interview that Sherman-Palladino owned a home in Venice, CA, while the spinoff was being developed, and liked the idea of having a sunny contrast to Gilmore Girls’ autumnal Stars Hollow setting.
“I think she really wanted that to be such a different vibe from the leaves falling in Stars Hollow to being out in Venice in California,” he explained, adding that the spinoff just “never gelled into anything,” but it was interesting “to see Jess’s life and what that would’ve been like.”
Zimmerman, who joined the Gilmore Girls writing team in Season 5, also explained why he thinks the show works so well in the fictional Connecticut town of Stars Hollow.
“There is just something about the East Coast,” he said. “Those leaves changing. It just has this cool, towny feeling you just want to hang out in and it’s very warm.”
Gilmore Girls Revival
Gilmore Girls aired for seven seasons between 2000 and 2007, and centered on the mother-daughter duo, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, played by Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel, respectively.
In Season 3, Rory dated the town bad boy Jess (Ventimiglia) before he moved to live with his dad in California. When the planned spinoff failed to materialize, the character of Jess made his Stars Hollow return in Season 4, and remained part of the show until its seventh and final chapter.
While the spinoff never saw the light of day, the four-episode Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, premiered in 2016. The show was fronted by OG cast members Graham, Bledel, Scott Patterson, and Kelly Bishop — and once again saw the return of Jess.
