Friends star David Schwimmer joining Will & Grace as recurring love interest
Former Friends star David Schwimmer is joining the cast of once-rival sitcom Will & Grace.
It was revealed this week that Schwimmer would be a recurring guest star on the upcoming second season of the revived gay-themed NBC sitcom.
Long-time fans of the shows will remember that Will & Grace often played second banana to Friends at NBC when they were both on air between 1998 and 2004.
David Schwimmer (Bryan Bedder/Getty for Vulture Festival)
Schwimmer, who became a household name playing Ross on Friends, will be joining the show as a recurring love interest for Grace (Debra Messing).
According to Deadline, Schwimmer’s role stretches across a planned five-episode arc, though episodes are still being written ahead of the show’s return.
The second season of the revived Will & Grace, the tenth season overall, is set to premiere on October 4, 2018.
Speaking to Deadline about the upcoming season, co-creator Max Mutchnick teased: “We’re trying to open up the series this year.
“Last year was about coming back and seeing how the audience was going to respond, and they embraced the show, and that was thrilling. Now, we need to move forward.”
Eric McCormack and Debra Messing (Getty)
He added: “No one’s going to convert to Hinduism. But we’re going to make an effort to grow the characters.
“Because they are, like us, 11 years older, and now we should be talking about some of the issues that these characters would have, at the ages that they’re all at, respectively.”
Chelsea Handler has also been cast as a ‘high-powered’ lesbian in the second season.
Handler has been cast as Donna Zimmer, according to Entertainment Weekly, and will play a client of Grace’s (Debra Messing).
Her character will reportedly be dating Grace’s sister Janet (Mary McCormack) during the series.
Eric McCormack and Debra Messing (Getty)
Will & Grace star Megan Mullally recently picked up an Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy nomination at the Emmy Awards. The show got a total of five nominations in all.
NBC recently boosted the already-commissioned second season from 13 episodes to a full 18, and ordered a third season.
The season three order means that the reboot will be on the airwaves until early 2020 at least – a remarkable achievement for a TV show that was killed off more than a decade ago.
NBC Entertainment chairman Robert Greenblatt said: “As far as I’m concerned, we can’t get enough of ‘Will & Grace’ and 23 more episodes is music to my ears.
“We’re eternally grateful that Debra, Eric, Sean and Megan feel the same way and wanted to keep this good thing going. I’m overwhelmed by the euphoric response the new show has received from the press and the audience, and my hat is off to the unrivaled writing team of Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, as well as the brilliant directing of Jimmy Burrows, for consistently delivering one of the best shows on television.”
