
Brand new characters, a new location and the return of a certain someone
WORDS BY ROXY BOURDILLON, IMAGE VIA INSTAGRAM @LEISHA_H
Listen up, you L Word superfan! We have some hot-off-the-press intel for you that you don’t want to miss. New showrunner on the block Marja-Lewis Ryan has gone and got us all giddy by sharing a whole page of the reboot script with EW.
The tantalising sneak preview reveals two brand new characters, who’ll be joining OGs Bette, Shane and Alice. Meet Dani, a 30-year-old lesbian who works in PR and Micah, also 30, a climate scientist. These two are exes and best buds, which Marja describes as “a real marker in the queer community”.
She explained why it was so important to her to include trans representation in The L Word 2.0: “My pitch was ‘Take what the show was and make it a lot more inclusive,’ so Dani is cis, Micah is trans.”
Marja also spoke about how much she’s adored working on the project so far. Who can blame her? It’s basically a dream gig, right?
“Getting the chance to write where their lives would be in 10 years, there’s this element of fan fiction that I got to fulfil — and the other writers in the room did, too.”
She proved she totally understands how vital this kind of queer representation is:
“Not to get super dark, but any time I see a news story about a kid like you or me who kills themselves, the idea that this show is not on the air is, I think, harmful. I just think about the little Marjas, watching themselves, seeing themselves, and being okay. So it’s bigger than me. It’s bigger than my ego.”
Obviously, we’re all desperate to know what we can expect from the sequel. Being careful not to give too much away, she said:
“I think it’s important to stay true to the characters and I did my best to show the evolution of what that might look like in 10 years.”
She also confirmed that the new series has moved from West Hollywood to the east side of Los Angeles.
And one last thing – even more excitingly – Marja she hinted that Angelica (yes, that Angelica!) might be making an appearance. She teased, “You know, Bette and Tina had a kid, who would be like 16 now. So, that’s really fun.”
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