Justin Kirk Says What We’re All Thinking About a ‘Weeds’ Reboot: They’re ‘Trying to Drag Its Tired Carcass Out’
A rumor is sprouting: Weeds is returning to Showtime. Uncle Andy probably isn’t.
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In a media age where everything is a franchise and past success means current IP, Showtime is reportedly revisiting two of its late-aughts comedic hits with the return of Weeds and Nurse Jackie, both from Lionsgate Television. Weeds, Jenji Kohan’s dark comedy about a bereaved suburban mother who starts an illicit pot business to keep her family afloat, told a novel and engaging story that broke Showtime viewership records and won critical success over its opening seasons. Then, it kept going. And going.
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The latter half of Weeds’ bloated eight-season original run didn’t enjoy the critical adoration of the show’s early episodes, and when the series concluded with a clunky time jump finale that showed Nancy Botwin’s post-legalization success alongside her brother-in-law/love interest Andy and the rest of her family, many fans were relieved that Weeds finally found the courage to say goodbye — including, apparently, Andy himself.
Fresh off a show-stopping performance in a climactic Succession episode, Justin Kirk, the fan-favorite actor who played Andy in 99 great-to-middling episodes, panned the rumored reboot idea and denied any involvement in it, telling Variety, “My agents haven’t mentioned it to me in a long time. Maybe they’re going to recast (Andy).”
“Even as a fan, do you really want to see us all old and coming back?” Kirk wondered. Kohan’s ninth season pitch, which has been rumored since 2019, is said to revisit the Botwin family 10 years after the finale — Kirk isn’t quite impressed. The actor recalled of the original ending, “By the time of Season Eight, I don’t think the general idea was, ‘We should keep doing this!'”
Kirk downplayed the validity of the ganja gossip, saying, “I had heard rumors of various iterations (of a reboot). Once, I heard about it being a prequel with younger characters, and then you just see us in flash forwards. So I have no idea. Although weirdly enough, I did recently hear of it again, so they may be trying to drag its tired carcass out.”
Still, Kirk couldn’t count himself out entirely if the right idea (and deal) arose, saying, “There is something exciting about seeing the people from something you were into however much older. There’s something cool about that. There’s got to be a story to tell, or some reason to do it. So we’ll see.”
For a show as focused on drug culture as Weeds, the recent shift in attitudes toward marijuana and other pastimes could provide an opportunity for a fresh perspective from familiar characters — at least, that’s what the suits at Showtime want us to think. If Kirk and the rest of the Weeds cast do return to the once-great series, get ready for the show to be rebranded as Shrooms with endless conversations about psychedelic therapy.
