[UPDATED] Exclusive: Krysten Ritter, Nahnatchka Khan & More Want to Host Apartment 23 Xmas Party
If it happens, this special has to be called Don't Trust the Grinch.
Ever think it might be nice to take a return trip to Apartment 23, where that “B” that looks a lot like Jessica Jones once lived? Well, apparently Krysten Ritter and Nahnatchka Khan feel the same way!
Speaking with The Mary Sue at ABC’s All-Star Party at the 2016 TCA Winter Press Tour on Saturday, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 creator Khan revealed that she, Ritter and other former cast members are very interested in the possibility of doing an especially festive continuation of the canceled ABC series.
“We’ve been talking about [how] it would be so amazing to do like a trailer where it’s almost like a superhero [thing],” Khan, who is currently running another ABC comedy (Fresh Off The Boat), explained in a one-on-one interview with TMS. “It’s dark and it’s New York and it’s in like these iron mines where people are working on something and you don’t know what it is. And then you see this superhero and these boots and you pan up and it’s Krysten, but it just says, ‘The Rise of the Bitch.’ And doing a Don’t Trust the B—- Christmas special!”
Wait. What the what?! An Apartment 23 Christmas special? Is this for real? As in we could see Ritter play Chloe (AKA “The B” would be her Jessica Jones episode name) again, like we got to see her play Gia again in the Veronica Mars movie?
“We’re talking about it!” Khan tells TMS. “It’s cool because we’re not making that [show] anymore, so we could just come back to make a 90-minute thing.”
While she said she wasn’t ready to talk about her “loose” ideas for the special just yet, Khan went on to note that James Van Der Beek, who played James Van Der Beek (I’m not joking, those who haven’t seen it and still need to get on it) on the show, “wants to do it.” (No mention of Dreama Walker reprising Chloe’s more roommate and series protagonist June.) And Ritter is totally on board for this idea, even as she works hard on that other show.
“I know she really wants to do it. We just have to figure out schedule-wise,” Khan explains. “We’re shooting until March on [Fresh Off The Boat] and I don’t know, but I think she goes back to [Jessica Jones] at some point. But if we can figure out schedules….”
Clearly, this idea is just at the workshop stage at the moment, with Khan noting that she doesn’t even know where the special would end up considering that 20th Century Fox still owns the rights to the show. But you can imagine that it would find a warm home at either Netflix or Hulu, streaming services which get kicks from reviving shows or films that others left for dead. And, as Khan pointed out, Jessica Jones shoots in New York, the same city Ritter’s proverbial “B” once inhabited….
One thing’s for sure, even if Don’t Trust the Grinch in Apartment 23 (FYI: this is a working title that we just dreamed up and not at all official) doesn’t land under our TV trees next year, we’ll be able to admire the awesome ongoing personal partnership between Khan and her former leading lady. Apparently she, like the rest of us, can’t get enough of Jessica Jones and Ritter’s performance in it.
“Girl, I binge-watched it. First weekend. Watched the whole thing … The way they told stories, I was hooked. They went like this [makes upward gesture]. It just kept peaking! Like, ‘This next one can’t possibly top the last one! Oh no, it did!’ And talk about female friendships!”
She continued, “I loved the way Krysten, as she does, put little bits of humor in things. She makes it funny in places it shouldn’t be, but not jokey, you know? … It reaffirmed for me, like I already knew, how amazing she was.”
Don’t know about you, but my heart and hopes just grew three sizes.
UPDATE: Sunday, January 17, 2016
TMS talked to Krysten Ritter during a small scrum following the Jessica Jones panel at TCA on Sunday and she confirmed that she’s indeed interested in doing the special. (SQUEEEEEEE!)
“I will be there,” she told TMS during a small scrum. “You never know because obviously I’m doing Jessica Jones, but if we can find a way to do it….”
She continued, “Me and James Van Der Beek and all of us are blown away by the appetite for it and we had the best time ever doing it. So if there’s a way to do, I have the will!”
TMS also spoke with Ritter’s former Apartment 23 co-stars Liza Lapira and Eric Andre at another TCA event earlier in the week and they confirmed that they too want to get the gang back together once more time.
“I saw that [story] and I didn’t know if it was true!” Lapira said excitedly. “I’m down.”
“I’m getting lots of plastic surgery soon, so they better do it quick,” Andre added, before noting, more seriously that he’s “in.”
GUYS. THIS COULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN. LIKE FOR REAL. B EXCITED.
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