‘Felicity’ Reunion! The Cast on That Double Ending, the Haircut & Revival Chances
It’s been 20 years since the premiere of Felicity in September 1998, and the audience at the ATX Television Festival was treated to a cast and crew reunion on June 10 in Austin, Texas.
Producer-director Lawrence Trilling sat down with the likes of Keri Russell, Scott Speedman, and Scott Foley to reminiscence about those good ‘ol college days in New York City.
First things first, they had to address the controversial way the show ended after four seasons.
“The network canceled us — kind of. And then they were like, ‘Just kidding, do a few more,'” Russell said of the double ending, which caused drama with fans at the time.
She explained that Felicity‘s co-creators and executive producers, J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, did know they had to wrap up the show with Felicity graduating from college and that was the moment they’d written towards.
Shortly after the finale, The WB asked for five more episodes. Fans thought the bonus episodes would show Felicity’s story continuing post-graduation but Abrams and Reeves had something else in mind.
“Felicity.” Clockwise from top left: Scott Foley, Scott Speedman, Amy Jo Johnson, Keri Russell (center) and Tangi Miller.
Instead, the episodes took Felicity back in time so she could make a different choice and see how her life would have been altered had she ended up with Noel (Scott Foley) instead of Ben (Scott Speedman).
Amanda Foreman, who played Megan, loved the ending, explaining that she thought it was “great” and “clever.” Plus, they “shot it all in sepia so you knew it wasn’t quite real.”
Russell agreed that Felicity explored how, when you’re young, you have the “chance to change your life completely.” She described the character as being bold and brave, noting, “She took the risk, she jumped, and that’s what I felt was the core strength of the show.”
Maybe not such a strong choice was Russell’s iconic pixie haircut that actually started out as a joke. The actress revealed she was just playing around in the hair and makeup trailer with a “little boy’s wig” and after, sent a photo to Abrams as a prank. He then called her up and asked if she would really cut her hair.
“It’s such a typical college girl story where a guy breaks up with her and she cuts her hair and it looks bad,” she said. Speedman joked he couldn’t hide the fact he was not into her new ‘do when she came back to set.
And, of course, the topic of a reboot came up, since that seems to be the trend on TV right now.
Foley was quick with an answer. On a previous panel for his upcoming series Whiskey Cavalier, he’d insisted a revival or reboot should not happen. The way he sees it is that, because the show existed in a very specific and transitional time in life, bringing it back after two decades would be an “injustice to the characters.”
But sitting on stage with the original cast, he had a change of heart. Foley explained that this reunion was emotional for him, adding, “I would kind of love to work with you [all] again. I would love to find out what happened to Richard, to Javier, to Elena.”
Someone else who’s down? Greg Grunberg, who played Sean Blumberg. He would do a revival “100 percent… I love this.”
