As ‘Weeds’ Turns 20, Is the Sequel Series Still Happening?

Dexter recently returned with a revival, and a Nurse Jackie update is apparently still in the works at Prime Video, but what about Showtime’s earlier comedy-tinged drama about a seemingly upstanding citizen with a criminal secret? Weeds, which starred Mary-Louise Parker as suburban mom-turned-pot-dealer Nancy Botwin, turns 20 years old on August 8, and fans might be curious what became of the sequel series Showtime was developing recently.

After all, Weeds became Showtime’s highest-rated series — with its Season 4 premiere attracting 1.3 million viewers and setting a Showtime record — and the show earned two Emmys, a Golden Globe, and a WGA Award. Sounds like fertile soil in which a sequel series could sprout, right?

Weeds ended with the passing of a joint.

The eighth and final season of Weeds sees Nancy surviving an assassination attempt and using her new lease on life to find a new business venture with eldest son Silas (Hunter Parrish). And the so-called “Black Widow,” who also has her hands full with youngest son Stevie, also finally hooks up with Andy (Justin Kirk), the brother of her late first husband, but he leaves her shortly thereafter.

And 2012’s flash-forward of a Weeds series finale — the double-length episode “It’s Time” — shows where Nancy & Co. end up in the year 2022. Marijuana has been legalized, and Nancy and Silas have a successful pot-café business, and she’s even working with her would-be killer, the son of her second husband. But Nancy ends up selling the company (to Starbucks!) after realizing that her career ambitions are still coming at a detriment to her family life.

Silas, for example, is living far from his mom, prioritizing his new life with his wife Megan (Shoshannah Stern). Middle son Shane (Alexander Gould) has become a cop who’s resentful of his family’s success, but he agrees to head to rehab. And youngest son Stevie (Mateus Ward), who now knows he’s the son of a now-deceased cartel kingpin, decides to go to boarding school to find himself.

Meanwhile, Andy is happily running a restaurant in another town, and he turns Nancy down when she asks him to come home, and Nancy’s onetime accountant Doug (Kevin Nealon) is busy running a cult. Thus, Nancy is facing a future of being alone — if not lonely — but also a future in which she’s free to figure out who she is outside the weed trade. In the final scene of the finale, she, Andy, Doug, and Nancy’s adult sons pass around a joint, and Nancy smiles as she takes in the pivotal moment.

The sequel series idea was budding for years.

News of a potential Weeds sequel series first blossomed in November 2019, when The Hollywood Reporter touted that Lionsgate, which produced the original series, was developing a sequel for Starz, its premium cable channel. Parker was attached to star and executive-produce the series, and Victoria Morrow, a writer and co-executive producer on the original, was writing the follow-up, which would have caught up with the Botwin family 10 years later and after the legalization of marijuana in several states.

“We’re thrilled to be back in business with series star and executive producer Mary-Louise Parker on what we’re calling Weeds 4.20, already in active development at Starz, as we prepare a comprehensive and integrated rollout for one of television’s most beloved properties.” Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said at the time.

Nothing came of that Starz project, however, but in May 2023, Deadline reported that Lionsgate was developing sequel series for both Weeds and Nurse Jackie, this time for Showtime. Again, Parker was on board to star and executive-produce the Weeds sequel, which reportedly would have caught up with Nancy in her new life in Copenhagen.

Literally minutes before that news came out, Variety published an interview with Kirk, in which he cast doubts on a sequel series. “Even as a fan, do you really want to see us all old and coming back?” the actor said. “By the time of Season 8, I don’t think the general idea was, ‘We should keep doing this!’ Look, I love those people, I love that character. I probably know as much as you do about any future reboots. … Although weirdly enough, I did recently hear of it again, so they may be trying to drag its tired carcass out.”

The following month, Parker told The Guardian that the sequel idea seemed to be getting closer and that she wasn’t getting her hopes up. “It’s just … I’m so much older now. It’s like it doesn’t have the same currency, you know, for a woman of my age, so I don’t know,” she said. “But I think if they actually use that, it could be interesting.”

Now the sequel prospect has wilted.

Last September, Weeds creator Jenji Kohan dismissed the sequel idea as a possible “money grab” at a TV event. “I feel like now that pot is legal [in many places] that I don’t really know if there’s more story to tell,” Kohan said, per Deadline. “I think Weeds was done, and I think it’d be a money grab a little bit, and I’m not involved with it. … They can do what they want, but this wouldn’t be associated with the team that made it, and I think there are many other stories to be told. I think Weeds was of its time, and it’s not as relevant anymore.”

In an interview published three days later, Parker delivered disappointing news about the sequel idea. “They don’t want to anymore,” she said on the podcast The Discourse. “So they dragged it out for a really long time. And then I guess they decided, ‘no.’ But everybody in that cast, it was really kind of amazing that everybody at the end of eight years loved each other. And that’s kind of amazing. And I would have loved to have had that again. But oh well.”