For years, Girls fans have been begging Lena Dunham to create — or even hint at — a potential spinoff based on the beloved character Shoshanna Shapiro. Years later, the writer, director and actress has finally revealed the likelihood of that wish actually coming to fruition.
Dunham, 39, admitted that Shoshanna, played by Zosia Mamet, was the “best character” on Girls and “the most enlightened” during an appearance on the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast on Tuesday, July 8.
Host Amanda Hirsch pointed out that Mamet, 37, had previously been on the podcast and expressed interest in the possibility of a Girls spinoff featuring her character. She’s not the only one holding out hope that it might happen someday.
“Listen, I love Shoshannah. I am on record and [will] say she is my favorite girl. … I think she is the one who is going places,” Dunham reflected. “Also, it’s just such a joy to watch Zosia be her, so if it was like the right context for us to do it, I’d be f***ing thrilled and also to do anything with her.”
She admitted that the idea of a spinoff has been “kicked around,” and she has thought about where the Girls characters “would be now.”
“She would be so brilliant at revisiting it, and I just miss it, and I miss her,” Dunham said about Mamet potentially portraying Shoshanna again. “I’m in.”
Dunham also dished on where the characters would be today in a subsequent interview with Variety on Tuesday.
“Shoshanna was married to, then divorced from, the mayor of New York City, and she runs an athleisure startup that’s zero-waste,” Dunham told the outlet of her vision. “Marnie — it’s third marriage. She still sings, but I think Marnie really needs to take it to sex and love addicts anonymous.”
“Jessa is unvaccinated and lives on a boat in Croatia,” she continued. “Adam is a cult theater actor, and he’s probably living in Berlin, and Ray is still on city council and running his coffee shop and doing better than anyone. Elijah is the fourth lead on a sitcom, making a good amount of money and still looking for love in all the wrong places.”
Dunham almost forgot to dream up a future for the controversial character she portrayed in Girls, Hannah Horvath.
“Oh my God, I forgot about her!” she said. “She teaches at Bard and loves raising her son. She probably has a girlfriend who’s, like, a chef. And she’s less obsessed with being famous. That is where I feel that she would land.”
Girls ran for six seasons on HBO, with its series finale airing in April 2017. In the show’s final episode, Marnie, played by Allison Williams, goes to live with pregnant Hannah in her house upstate. Five months later, Hannah has given birth to a baby boy named Grover and is struggling with breast-feeding. Hannah’s mom also arrives to lend a helping hand.
Hannah grows aggravated with Marnie, who tries to help her get Grover to latch and storms off in the middle of the night. While on her walk in the darkness, Hannah runs into a teen girl who is running away from home. After reasoning with the girl, she tells her to go back home and has a major revelation about parenting — realizing that a parent will strive to do what’s best for their child. When she returns home, she and Marnie make up and she is able to get Grover to latch, as she breastfeeds him.
