Posted in: Current News, Editor's Picks TV News, Movies, Showtime, TV, YouTube | Tagged: alice, Bette, cable, Ilene Chaiken, jennifer beals, Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey, LGBTQ, shane, showtime, television, the l word, tv

'The L Word': Showtime Developing Sequel To Groundbreaking Series

Television's "revival fever" rolls-on as Showtime confirmed that development is underway on a sequel series to The L Word, with three of the show's original cast members returning to help usher-in a new generation of characters and storylines. Jennifer Beals (Bette), Kate Moennig (Shane), and Leisha Hailey (Alice) will reprise their roles if the series is picked-up (though other potential returns are still possible), and will also serve as the show's executive producers. According to Buzzfeed, The L Word creator Ilene Chaiken will also executive produce, but will not be able to have direct writing involvement in the series due to her commitment to FOX's Empire.

The L Word premiered on Showtime in 2004, and over the course of the next five years the show would play a major role in positively altering LGBTQ representation across the broad media spectrum. Instead of portraying lesbians as simply "the best friend" or "brooding and haunted", The L Word dared to present a diverse cast of characters that rightfully represented the broad spectrum of the human experience: their strengths and weaknesses; their successes and failures; their loves and losses. Most importantly, The L Word would force long-needed national conversations on issues that were usually pushed to the side, including: LGBTQ rights; legalizing same-safe marriage; and LGBTQ adoption, to name only a few.

For Chaiken, the possibility of bringing back The L Word in some capacity is an idea that's been in the back of her mind since the show ended in 2009. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Chaiken told the newspaper that she didn't see the show being over: "I hope we'll do an L Word movie — there's no plan to do an L Word movie. But I would love to do that. I just believe that in some way, the show will live on."  In May 2017, eight years after her initial comments and about two months before this announcement, Chaiken told Entertainment Weekly that she was still hopeful for a return:

"There's certainly a chance. We talk about it all the time. When we went off the air in 2009, I think a lot of people thought, 'Okay, the baton is passed now, and there will be lots of shows that portray lesbian life.' There's really nothing. It feels like maybe it should come back."

Until then , take a minute to reacquaint yourselves with The L Word:

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