Dexter just lately returned with a revival, and a Nurse Jackie replace is seemingly nonetheless within the works at Prime Video, however what about Showtime’s earlier comedy-tinged drama a few seemingly upstanding citizen with a prison secret? Weeds, which starred Mary-Louise Parker as suburban mom-turned-pot-dealer Nancy Botwin, turns 20 years previous on August 8, and followers is likely to be curious what grew to become of the sequel sequence Showtime was growing just lately.
In spite of everything, Weeds grew to become Showtime’s highest-rated sequence — with its Season 4 premiere attracting 1.3 million viewers and setting a Showtime report — and the present earned two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a WGA Award. Feels like fertile soil through which a sequel sequence may sprout, proper?
Weeds ended with the passing of a joint.
The eighth and closing season of Weeds sees Nancy surviving an assassination try and utilizing her new lease on life to discover a new enterprise enterprise with eldest son Silas (Hunter Parrish). And the so-called “Black Widow,” who additionally has her arms full with youngest son Stevie, additionally lastly hooks up with Andy (Justin Kirk), the brother of her late first husband, however he leaves her shortly thereafter.
And 2012’s flash-forward of a Weeds sequence finale — the double-length episode “It’s Time” — reveals the place Nancy & Co. find yourself within the 12 months 2022. Marijuana has been legalized, and Nancy and Silas have a profitable pot-café enterprise, and he or she’s even working together with her would-be killer, the son of her second husband. However Nancy finally ends up promoting the corporate (to Starbucks!) after realizing that her profession ambitions are nonetheless coming at a detriment to her household life.
Silas, for instance, resides removed from his mother, prioritizing his new life together with his spouse Megan (Shoshannah Stern). Center son Shane (Alexander Gould) has develop into a cop who’s resentful of his household’s success, however he agrees to move to rehab. And youngest son Stevie (Mateus Ward), who now is aware of he’s the son of a now-deceased cartel kingpin, decides to go to boarding faculty to search out himself.
In the meantime, Andy is fortunately working a restaurant in one other city, and he turns Nancy down when she asks him to return dwelling, and Nancy’s onetime accountant Doug (Kevin Nealon) is busy working a cult. Thus, Nancy is dealing with a way forward for being alone — if not lonely — but additionally a future through which she’s free to determine who she is exterior the weed commerce. Within the closing scene of the finale, she, Andy, Doug, and Nancy’s grownup sons cross round a joint, and Nancy smiles as she takes within the pivotal second.
The sequel sequence thought was budding for years.
Information of a possible Weeds sequel sequence first blossomed in November 2019, when The Hollywood Reporter touted that Lionsgate, which produced the unique sequence, was growing a sequel for Starz, its premium cable channel. Parker was hooked up to star and executive-produce the sequence, and Victoria Morrow, a author and co-executive producer on the unique, was writing the follow-up, which might have caught up with the Botwin household 10 years later and after the legalization of marijuana in a number of states.
“We’re thrilled to be again in enterprise with sequence star and govt producer Mary-Louise Parker on what we’re calling Weeds 4.20, already in energetic growth at Starz, as we put together a complete and built-in rollout for one in all tv’s most beloved properties.” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer mentioned on the time.
Nothing got here of that Starz venture, nevertheless, however in Might 2023, Deadline reported that Lionsgate was growing sequel sequence for each Weeds and Nurse Jackie, this time for Showtime. Once more, Parker was on board to star and executive-produce the Weeds sequel, which reportedly would have caught up with Nancy in her new life in Copenhagen.
Actually minutes earlier than that information got here out, Selection revealed an interview with Kirk, through which he forged doubts on a sequel sequence. “At the same time as a fan, do you actually need to see us all previous and coming again?” the actor mentioned. “By the point of Season 8, I don’t assume the final thought was, ‘We must always maintain doing this!’ Look, I like these folks, I like that character. I most likely know as a lot as you do about any future reboots. … Though weirdly sufficient, I did just lately hear of it once more, so they might be attempting to pull its drained carcass out.”
The next month, Parker advised The Guardian that the sequel thought gave the impression to be getting nearer and that she wasn’t getting her hopes up. “It’s simply … I’m a lot older now. It’s prefer it doesn’t have the identical foreign money, you recognize, for a lady of my age, so I don’t know,” she mentioned. “However I feel if they really use that, it could possibly be attention-grabbing.”
Now the sequel prospect has wilted.
Final September, Weeds creator Jenji Kohan dismissed the sequel thought as a attainable “cash seize” at a TV occasion. “I really feel like now that pot is authorized [in many places] that I don’t actually know if there’s extra story to inform,” Kohan mentioned, per Deadline. “I feel Weeds was executed, and I feel it’d be a cash seize just a little bit, and I’m not concerned with it. … They will do what they need, however this wouldn’t be related to the crew that made it, and I feel there are numerous different tales to be advised. I feel Weeds was of its time, and it’s not as related anymore.”
In an interview revealed three days later, Parker delivered disappointing information in regards to the sequel thought. “They don’t need to anymore,” she mentioned on the podcast The Discourse. “So that they dragged it out for a extremely very long time. After which I assume they determined, ‘no.’ However all people in that forged, it was actually form of superb that everyone on the finish of eight years liked one another. And that’s form of superb. And I might have liked to have had that once more. However oh nicely.”