Lena Dunham didn’t wait for a trade exclusive. In a video announcement posted to Instagram, Dunham asks the core cast on a Zoom call if they want to return for “one summer” of shooting the show. They said yes. Hours later HBO confirmed it had ordered a limited run of five episodes, with most of the original cast returning.
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Dunham reprises Hannah, alongside Allison Williams as Marnie, Jemima Kirke as Jessa, Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna and Andrew Rannells as Elijah. Dunham will write and direct the new episodes, and production begins in summer 2027, 10 years after the sixth and final season aired. No premiere date has been announced.
Dunham said the characters started talking to her again right around her 40th birthday. She also posted a personal essay on Substack about the revival, writing that “40 is its own kind of weird.” HBO comedy head Amy Gravitt framed the new episodes as a shift from the chaos of your 20s to the milestone of turning 40.
Not everyone is coming back. Adam Driver’s character, Adam Sackler, wasn’t mentioned in the announcement. Co-showrunner Jenni Konner isn’t returning either, and Dunham wrote in her memoir “Famesick” that the two haven’t spoken since 2018. The same memoir alleges Driver was verbally aggressive during filming.
“Girls” was built on messy friendships and was argued about endlessly online, and its revival arrived the way that audience gets news now, straight from the cast’s own feeds.
The original ran six seasons on HBO from 2012 to 2017, earning 19 Emmy nominations and two wins. The fans who grew up fighting about Hannah Horvath are now roughly her age, which may be the whole point.
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