Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas Almost Brought Back [Spoiler] in Marvel-Like End Credits Scene, EP Reveals
Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas hosted all of the NBC dramedy’s series regulars, plus a few special guests, for the holidays on The Roku Channel. But one fan favorite was MIA during the festivities: Zoey’s former SPRQ Point supervisor Joan, played by Lauren Graham.
As previously reported, the actress was supposed to be a part of the show’s second season on NBC, but the pandemic and scheduling issues with Graham’s other project, Disney+’s The Mighty Ducks, thwarted executive producer Austin Winsberg‘s plan. “We just couldn’t get her. Literally, at the eleventh hour, we had to change six scripts to write her out of them, which was devastating because she was such a strong presence in the show,” Winsberg tells TVLine.
So when it came time to prep the Christmas-themed movie, Winsberg definitely considered bringing Graham back for the wrap-up flick. However, crafting an arc for Joan that would also fit into the familial plotline proved to be challenging.
“I don’t feel like it’s really justice to her or the character to bring her back in some sort of cameo capacity,” Winsberg explains. “So I knew I would have needed to do a big story with Joan, and I just felt like the movie’s really family-centric, and it was hard, as we were breaking it, to think of a full story for Joan that could also lend itself to the 90-page thing that we were trying to do, while still focusing on the family and some of the other storylines. It just didn’t feel like we had the room for it. I wish we could have figured out a way to make it work.”
Winsberg even contemplated a tag in the vein of big-screen superhero movies. “I actually had an idea for a big end credits, Marvel-like scene, where I did bring Lauren back, that would have kind of ‘dot-dot-dotted’ into what could potentially be the next movie,” the EP reveals, “but we weren’t able to make it work at the end of the day.”
Zoey’s fans, are you disappointed Joan wasn’t part of the movie? Or does it make sense to you? And is anyone else picturing Joan walking into SPRQ Point all Nick Fury-like?
Seeing as they fit in Deb(the fabulous Bernadette Peters), Mo’s family drama, and a tree guy…they probably could have fit in Joan…
Overall it all felt a bit underwhelming.
We NEED more joy a d movies like this!
So I honestly loved the movie. Way better than most of season 2. I will say moes whole part was just okay. I felt like it could’ve been better if he was at the family dinner instead. I also felt bad for the choir since only the daughter got her moment but oh well. Overall I was pleasantly surprised with the movie. I do kinda hope it ends here or they just do movies from now on. Max not having powers by the end makes me less interested in future episodes
I loved the movie! I hope it’s doing well enough for Roku to do more movies…or another season of the show.
It felt like an extended episode. I wouldn’t mind if Roku did decide to reverse the cancellation or even just to do more 90min movies (not necessarily for Christmas). Zoey still had her abilities. It was left very open ended.
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It’s just unfortunate that these quirky upbeat shows (Yes, even with the death of Mitch) don’t last more than a season or two.
I loved the movie! I just hope there will be more. I was okay with Joan not being in it.
Cute ending letting the little girl do the closing song with Mo standing by with an “it’s all about the kids” look
Overall I liked it and thought it was well done but I was disappointed we didn’t get a song for Simon almost every main cast member got to sing even newer cast members I don’t understand why Simon a Main original character didn’t get a song. I was happy though that he does still have a strong connection to Zoey bringing her a snow globe not knowing about the broken one shows he gets her sometimes more than Max I think.
All the crews contracts had ended and they had started to move on, They could only get John Clarence Stewart for 4 days out of the 15 for filming because he had another project he was already contracted to.
They did have a song planned for him but unfortunately there just wasn’t enough time.
Thanks for the info. I wondered if something like that was the reason. Since Simon was one of the first people Zoey heard a heart song from and maybe the first person she helped
It just seemed strange that he didn’t get a song. Hopefully if there are any more movies or if Roku would pick it up as a regular series again we would get a little more Simon.
Thanks for the info. I wondered if something like that was the reason. Since Simon was one of the first people Zoey heard a heart song from and maybe the first person she helped
It just seemed strange that he didn’t get a song. Hopefully if there are any more movies or if Roku would pick it up as a regular series again we would get a little more Simon.
I may be in the minority but I was underwhelmed with the Christmas movie. It’s also sad to me that of all the characters, Zoey is my least favorite. I was also sad that Simon didn’t do any singing.
I have been absolutely obsessed with Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, so the only thing I disliked about the amàzing Christmas movie was it being the end of the series.