New Girl is going to have to cope without its new girl, thanks to the announcement that Zooey Deschanel‘s Jess, the show’s central character, will not appear at all in the first four episodes of the upcoming fifth season.
This news comes as the Fox network threw New Girl a lifeline for another season, but pushed the return date to January next year, meaning a much longer wait than normal for fans.
This is partly so the network can make room for newer shows, including the heavily-hyped Scream Queens, which will take New Girl‘s slot, alongside new comedies starring Rob Lowe and John Stamos, in September.
Per an interview with the show’s creator Liz Meriweather, however, the fact that Zooey Deschanel is presently pregnant with the world’s most quirky baby has also affected scheduling.
Meriweather recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about how the show will handle its star’s absence:
Do you know how you’re going to navigate the lack of Zooey?
Jess gets sequestered on a jury. The idea behind it was to be able to do those pastel courtroom sketches, so you could still see her in the jury. It’s a little weird, but we’re having fun with it. It’s a way to have all of the guys check in with her. They watch the news reports on the trial. And they show being set in L.A., this is a city where celebrities get into trouble and juries really do get sequestered.Any nerves about going so long without your title character?Without the New Girl?
(Laughs.) The first episode without her is actually called “No Girl.” I think in the first or second season, it would have been hard, but now it feels like this creative opportunity to learn more about the other characters. And it’s a little bit of a challenge. People are going to be asking, “How are they going to pull this off?” I’m kind of asking that question of myself. I directed the first episode without Zooey, that’s the last one we shot this year, and it’s really funny. It’s a guys’ episode. It’s an opportunity to stretch ourselves … Or it will be a total disaster, and then she’ll come back.
You can check out our roundup of which US shows are coming back for another season and which are cancelled right here.
