It’s Official, Just Jack is Back! Will & Grace Returning For 10 Episode Season

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Rumors and reports had been swirling around the show business world for weeks, and on Tuesday, the rumors became reality; the hit NBC sitcom Will & Grace is returning to the network for a 10 episode run.

The Will & Grace reunion will bring back all four of the major actors from the series, with Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes, coming back as Will, Grace, Karen and Jack (that’s “Just Jack”)  respectively. The new season will also make the reunion complete by bringing back the creative team from the show’s original 8 season (1998 to 2006) run. Series creators Max Mutchnick and David Kohan are back as well as sitcom directing legend James Burrows who directed all 8 seasons of Will & Grace.

Max Mutchnick said, “Dave and I are absolutely thrilled about the opportunity to write what Will, Grace, Jack and Karen are thinking about in 2017,”. There was a slight preview of what the characters would be doing in the 10 years after the show’s last episode when Will & Grace, Jack and Karen returned with a 10 minute video last September urging everyone to vote in the Presidential election. You can watch the election special below. It was that election sketch that got the wheels started on bringing back the series for more episodes a decade after it wrapped. That’s at least one reason to say “Thanks Trump” and not say it sarcastically.

Will & Grace was one of the very first shows on television to feature gay characters as regulars who were completely out including have a gay man as one of the lead characters in the series that featured McCormack as Will Truman, an openly gay man who is best friends with Messing’s character, Grace Adler. The series revolved around their relationship and their circle of friends and boyfriends. The show also became a historic bookmark in the marriage equality battle, when Vice-President Joe Biden referenced it when he went rogue announcing his approval of same-sex marriages in all states during an interview on Meet The Press (also see below). The Veep said, “.. I think Will & Grace did more to educate the American public more than almost anything anybody has done so far. People fear that which is different. Now they’re beginning to understand.” The sitcom was also a multiple time Golden Globe nominee and multiple Emmy nominee and winner.

As the new 10 episode season goes into production, it will be interesting to see if the writers pick up where the show left off, which was the future. The series finale of Will & Grace featured several flash-forwards which included Will and Grace having both raised a child with their partners, but no longer speaking to each other, then reuniting 20 years later in the year 2026, when their kids meet in college and fall in love and end up marrying each other. That’s a pretty confusing timeline to have to interrupt and work into the new season.

Nonetheless, NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt is thrilled to have Will & Grace back in the NBC line up. He told Variety, We’re thrilled that one of the smartest, funniest, and most defining comedies in NBC history is coming back. This groundbreaking series for everything from gay rights to social and political commentary — all disguised as a high-speed train of witty pop culture — is coming back where it belongs.”

No date has been mentioned for when the new season of Will & Grace will go into production.

The Will & Grace 2016 Election Special

VP Biden Endorsing Gay Marriage

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper