Nearly six months ago, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist was canceled after its second season on NBC; now it’s getting a second life on Roku with Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, a holiday-themed movie picking up where the beloved musical series left off.
It also marks Roku’s first step into original programming, and premiered in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, where creator Austin Winsberg reflected on the show’s whirlwind year.
“After we kind of got this surprise from NBC that the show wasn’t coming back — nobody expected it — and then it was kind of like can we set this up somewhere else? Is there a possibility of doing more?,” Winsberg told The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet, as the TV service showed interest in continuing the story when talks fizzled at Peacock.
That cancelation, amid Emmy noms and critical acclaim, “was such a gutpunch,” Winsberg said, “and I really kind of mourned it when it happened. The show is so personal to me that the concept of it being gone I couldn’t even wrap my head around.”
Star Skylar Astin added that after the news that the show would end with season two, “it felt like it ended too soon and I think the fans really felt that. We didn’t manipulate a cliffhanger, that’s where the story was leading us, and it felt unresolved.”
And now cut to the Christmas movie, which follows Zoey (Jane Levy) and her family’s first holiday after her father (played by Peter Gallagher), has died. “When we got this opportunity to do a holiday movie [it] was like, ‘Oh my god, there’s a whole new world that we can do,” Winsberg said, taking on Christmas songs for the first time while also incorporating some of the relationship storylines he had planned for season three. The fact that the project is continuing on at all is thanks to the vocal fanbase, Levy said, hoping “that they know that this is all because of them and I’m so grateful for their support.”
And though the movie was originally proposed as a way to close out the series, there are hopes among the cast and writers that the story continues in some form.
“I definitely have thoughts of places we could go; I also have thoughts of other movie versions,” Winsberg says, and after experimenting with a long-term format, “I feel like oh, movies are actually kind of fun, so maybe we should be doing more movies instead of just doing the show some more. If they’re open for more, I’m open for more.”
And Levy has a few ideas of her own.
“Zoey’s Extraordinary Paris Vacation with Mo, Zoey’s Extraordinary Kiwi Adventure in New Zealand with Max,” she suggested. “Wherever we can travel sounds great.”
Added Winsberg, “If this is the end, I feel grateful that we got this chance. If it’s not the end, I’m excited that we can possibly live on and do more.”
Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas is now streaming on Roku.
Source: Hollywood
