Sequels, reboots, and revivals, oh my. Deadline has reported that Showtime is developing sequel series to Nurse Jackie and Weeds, which were once crown jewels of the network.
The sequels to Nurse Jackie and Weeds are still in the early stages of development, but Deadline hears that the prospective leads of each original series, Edie Falco and Mary-Louise Parker, are attached to star and executive produce the follow-ups. The original Weeds series starred Parker as a widowed mother who starts selling marijuana to support her family following the death of her husband. Nurse Jackie featured Falco as a pill-popping ER nurse and mother.
The Weeds sequel series would be written and executive produced by Christian Torpe, with the new story featuring Mary-Louise Parker’s character in Copenhagen. As for the Nurse Jackie sequel, it would be written and executive produced by Abe Sylvia and Liz Flahive, who worked on the original. It’s not known where the story would lead. Deadline’s report states that the new shows could launch as early as next year, but that all depends on when the WGA strike comes to a close.
Showtime has been pushing sequels and spinoffs of many of their popular shows, including new takes on Dexter, Billions, and The L Word. This also isn’t the first time that we’ve heard of a Weeds sequel series. Starz teamed with Lionsgate Television in 2019 for a series which would have picked up with the Botwin family ten years after the events of the original series in the era of legalized marijuana.
Justin Kirk, who starred alongside Mary-Louise Parker in Weeds, told Variety that he doubts that this latest revival will move forward. “Even as a fan, do you really want to see us all old and coming back? By the time of Season 8, I don’t think the general idea was, ‘We should keep doing this!’” Kirk said. “Look, I love those people, I love that character. I probably know as much as you do about any future reboots.” The actor continued, “I know they were talking about it, about what it could possibly be. I had heard rumors of various iterations. Once, I heard about it being a prequel with younger characters, and then you just see us in flash forwards. So I have no idea. Although weirdly enough, I did recently hear of it again, so they may be trying to drag its tired carcass out.“
Would you watch a sequel to Weeds to Nurse Jackie?