This morning NBC Out published an interview with Ilene Chaiken on a topic of monumental importance to a vibrant niche of passionate fans of flashy lesbian melodrama:The L Word reboot.

Talking to Trish Bendix, Ilene went over the reboot’s genesis and development from Ilene Chaiken pitching the reboot concept to Showtime shortly after the 2016 election to a few days later when Ilene Chaiken was shooting Empire in Chicago and got the “let’s do it” call. According to Ilene Chaiken; Jennifer Beals, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey have been “lobbying [Ilene] to do this [since] about five years ago, and it really was kind of their idea more than [Ilene’s].” The three actresses will be serving as Executive Producers and will be playing their same characters, ten years later. (A scenario for which I have luckily already written some inspirational fan-fic.)

However, as previously discussed, Ilene Chaiken suggested to Showtime that rather than heading it up herself, they ought to hire “some fabulous and gifted new young lesbian who still dates, knows what’s going on in the world and has something new to say about the experience of being a lesbian and living our lives.” That person, 33-year-old writer/director Marja-Lewis Ryan (The Four-Faced Liar), will be providing all relevant vision, and was the person to whom Ilene Chaiken deferred throughout the interview. “It’s Marja’s world and her show to do with as she wishes,” said Ilene Chaiken, when asked if Dana and Jenny could perhaps come back to life:

…kind of anything can happen. We’re living in the reality of “The L Word” to a large extent. Bette, Shane and Alice, as you know, are coming back — those three actors are my partners as well as executive producers on the show, and so we’re picking up their lives 10 years later and any number of other characters can, and I hope will, appear on the show.

I said to Marja, who is very respectful and collaborative, “Feel free to say it was a dream if you want to.” But I just wanted her to know that I wasn’t precious about any of it, so anything could happen, who knows?

Apparently, Ilene and Marja met “in a writer’s room for a feature film at TriStar” described, horrifyingly enough, as “an adaptation of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In.” Ilene and Marja were two of six writers in the room, which means the room of humans discussing the possible film adaptation of Lean In had significantly more lesbian representation than Lean In itself, but I digress. They hit it off, and now Marja is in charge and the writer’s room will commence its important work in a few weeks. (Call me!)

Ilene Chaiken also assured us all that the new show would be more diverse than the original, that queer and female directors will be prioritized and that “Marja is really keenly attuned to the issues of representation and inclusivity” as well as her commitment to and enjoyment of “telling sexy stories about sex.”

There was, unfortunately, no mention of Ilene Chaiken’s bird instagram.

You can read the entire interview, including some Sarah Shahi related conversation and discussion of the show’s “aspirational tone,” on NBC Out.

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