Will The New Gilmore Girls Include More People Of Color?

Stars Hollow, home of the Gilmore Girls, was a lot of things during the show's seven-season run — quirky, wholesome, and mostly white. Yes, there were a few people of color featured in the almost-painfully-quaint town: Rory's best friend, Lane, and her mother were Korean (although both played by Japanese-American actresses); and Gypsy, the town's mechanic and a member of the core townsfolk ensemble was played by Rose Abdoo, an actress of Dominican and Lebanese descent. But from the crowd at Luke's diner to the assembled citizens at the average town meeting, Stars Hollow always looked pretty white.

A new photo from the reboot suggests there might be hope for a more diverse Stars Hollow in the upcoming episodes; it's a still from a town meeting scene, and it features several actors of color. Of course, it remains to be seen whether these actors will have real roles on the revamped show.

It's possible that Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman Palladino was mindful of casting non-white actors after she received some public criticism from Shonda Rhimes over the lack of diversity in her last show, Bunheads. Rhimes wrote in a tweet during Bunheads' run in 2012, "Hey @abcfbunheads: really? You couldn't cast even ONE young dancer of color so I could feel good about my kid watching this show? NOT ONE?" And though at the time Sherman-Palladino criticized Rhimes for calling out a fellow female show-runner in a public forum, maybe she has since realized Rhimes was right; shows do have to be mindful of creating a diverse cast.

We'll just have to wait and see if the change is real. The revival of Gilmore Girls will premiere on Netflix sometime this year.