Absolutely Everything We Know About The Girls Reboot

This week, Lena Dunham made millennial dreams across the world come true after announcing her smash-hit series Girls is returning for a five-episode revival. HBO’s era-defining comedy originally aired from 2012 to 2017 across six seasons, garnering a cult following and buzz which has endured long after the last episode aired. 

A coming-of-age series about four women growing up in New York, Dunham’s show didn’t initially seem like groundbreaking material – with critics initially dismissing it as a Sex and the City rip-off. But it quickly became clear Girls was a far cry from the glossy, Manolo-studded lives of Carrie and Samantha. The show was lauded for its realistic portrayal of messy post-college life, focusing on flawed characters dealing with debt, mental health struggles and turbulent relationships. So what can we expect from the reboot? Here’s everything we know so far.

Girls Reboot: Cast, Plot, Release Date

Who Will Star?

The original core cast will all return to reprise their roles: Dunham as aspiring writer Hannah Horvath, Allison Williams as her type A roommate Marnie Michaels, Jemima Kirke as the free-spirited Jessa Johansson and Zosia Mamet as fast-talking NYU student Shoshanna Shapiro. Andrew Rannells will also star as Elijah Krantz, one of the show’s most beloved characters who we meet as Hannah’s college boyfriend and later comes out as gay. Judd Apatow, who helped get the initial go-ahead with HBO, will also return as executive producer. 

Several cast members were notably absent from the announcement, including Adam Driver who played Dunham’s on-off boyfriend on the show. Dunham wrote about her complex relationship with Driver in her book Famesick, in which she described her co-star as ‘verbally aggressive’ on set.

What Will Happen?

‘We always said we would only return to Girls if there was a specific story we were burning to tell,’ said Dunham in a statement. ‘I’ve missed these characters, but for a long time I couldn’t quite picture them in the present day. Then, right around my 40th birthday, they started talking to me in the shower. And, as you may remember, once this fivesome starts talking it’s pretty hard to get them to stop.’

Amy Gravitt, executive vice-president of HBO programming, added: ‘We’re thrilled to have Lena turn her gaze from the tumult of one’s twenties to the milestone of turning forty.

‘To say the world has changed since we last saw Hannah, Marnie, Shoshanna, Jessa, and Elijah is a massive understatement, but we know fans – old and new – will be happy to see how they’ve grown and relieved to see that they’re still the “Girls” we knew way back when.’

Let’s cast our minds back: where did Girls leave us in 2017? The tenth episode of season six, named Latching, sees Hannah struggling with life as a single mother after giving birth to son Grover (she got pregnant after a brief fling with Paul Louis, played by Riz Ahmed, during a weekend trip to the Hamptons). Marnie, who is living in her mother’s home gym and not doing much career-wise, decides to help Marnie look after Grover. Hannah is having difficulties with breastfeeding, while Marnie is realising she’s signed up for a life she didn’t necessarily want, and both are mourning their previous lives.

Then Loreen, Hannah’s mother, shows up, and shares some frank words: ‘You made a choice to have a child and guess what? It’s the first one you can’t take back.’ Hannah goes to wallow on a walk, but an encounter with a teenage girl gives her some perspective on the sacrifices her own mother made – and the ones she has to take on going forwards with her son. In the final scene, Hannah goes to soothe a crying Grover and he finally latches.

Shoshana and Jessa’s stories, meanwhile, end in the penultimate episode. Shosh is engaged to Byron Long (Julian Leong) and has found a new group of friends after cutting ties with the girls (who show up to her engagement party nonetheless, uninvited). Jessa’s fate is left more uncertain. She has sort of made up with Hannah after a long estrangement sparked by her decision to date Hannah’s ex Adam. It’s implied that Jessa and Adam remain together, though their relationship remains volatile. 

The series ends on a high for Elijah, who finally achieves his dream of a theatrical career after landing a major role in the Broadway musical adaptation of White Men Can’t Jump. 

So ten years on, where will all the characters be? How will Hannah’s motherhood journey have evolved? Will Shoshana still be estranged from the group? Has Marnie found love again – or purpose? All this is yet to be revealed – but we do know Dunham is excited to explore the many different ways to be 40. 

‘When I initially pitched Girls, I was 23, living in the back of my parents’ place in a bedroom I shared with my 17 year old sibling,’ she wrote on Substack. ‘I thought, in the way 23 year olds often think things, that I was at the last transitional age. But 40 is its own kind of weird.

‘There was a long period in which it was impossible to imagine reconvening Girls – it felt so recent and so big, like a glacier we were sailing away from. Then, I turned forty. I thought about the distance I felt – having not yet had a child, having come “later” to marriage, having gone very fast in certain ways and still having some challenges with the washing machine – from the woman I thought I’d be and so many women I know.

‘I love these girls (and boy) and I love all the people who have reminded us afresh why we do this, which is the joy of being together… and the chance to wear yellow mesh.’

Girls is one of a string of ’00s and ’10s films and shows announcing reboots recently, from the Harry Potter TV revival to The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Bend It Like Beckham.

When Will It Air?

There is no release date just yet, but production will begin in 2027.

How To Stream Girls

If you’re yet to discover the joy of Girls (or fancy a re-watch), all six seasons are available to stream on HBO Max or NOW TV.