Lisa Kudrow is ready to say goodbye to Valerie Cherish, confirming the forthcoming third season of The Comeback will be its last.
The Friends alum, 62, will reprise her Emmy-nominated role as Cherish, a fading sitcom star trying to revive her career, when the new season debuts later this week — more than 10 years after its second season in 2014, and just over 20 years after its debut in 2005.
Kudrow, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the premiere, said season three would be the “third and final.”
“I don’t know if I’ll want to do it again in 10 years,” she admitted, “so let’s be done, that way no one is asking what’s next or whether we will even want to do more.
“The most respectful thing we can do for the audience and for the character is make it a three-part story,” she added. “It’s a trilogy, and this is the end.”
When The Comeback premiered in 2005, it received low ratings and mixed critical reviews, leading to an early cancellation. “We were hit with such a wave of disbelief and confusion because what we had done connected with us in such a strong way, we were so thrown by the fact that it wasn’t connecting with others,” series co-creator, Michael Patrick King, told the outlet.
“We didn’t know how that could have happened. We should have been given a second season. I don’t know why it didn’t happen, but it was definitely a disconnect from how we felt about what we had produced, which we thought was hilarious and unique and well made.”
Kudrow recalled that when King called her to tell her the show had been axed, she “didn’t feel bad.”
“I felt really great about what we had done and knew that we couldn’t have done better,” the Romy and Michele's High School Reunion actor said. “Someone is making a mistake, and I knew it wasn’t ours. I just thought, ‘Well, I’ll do other things and maybe someday they’ll change their mind.’ Ten years later, they did.”
Kudrow’s portrayal of Cherish has earned her two Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy nominations. The forthcoming season of The Comeback will follow Cherish as she takes on a new role on a show written by AI.
Returning cast includes Dan Bucatinsky, Laura Silverman, Damian Young and Tim Bagley. They will be joined by series newcomers Matt Cook, Jack O’Brien, Ella Stiller, John Early, Barry Shabaka Henley, Abbi Jacobson, Tony Macht, Brittany O’Grady, Zane Phillips, Kudrow’s son Julian Stern and Andrew Scott.
Season three of The Comeback premieres March 22 on HBO Max. New episodes will be released weekly thereafter, with the series finale dropping May 10.
