Grace and Frankie may be ending but that doesn't mean we've seen the last of Brianna.
June Diane Raphael confirmed she and co-creator Howard Morris are writing a spin-off series centered around her character, Brianna Hanson, the daughter of Jane Fonda's Grace. Describing Brianna as "unapologetically powerful," the actress told The Hollywood Reporter that the show will explore "what it means to be a middle-aged woman without children or a husband."
June Diane explained that she and Howard began discussing a potential spin-off during the height of the pandemic. "We spent months, honestly, just talking through the idea that women's currency is devalued to our culture as we get older, and a lot of times it's the opposite for men," she explained. "And we talked about what Brianna is potentially losing and gaining as she ages alone, and how a woman who is alone can create a deep fear in so many people."
And while June Diane herself is a mother, she understands "there's still a stigma around women who do not have kids and it brings up a lot for people."
Ultimately, June Diane hopes to redefine the way people like Brianna are viewed. "I connect to roles that portray women in ways where they don't have to be so likable and acceptable," she previously told The Cut. "There's such a long way to go in terms of the ways in which we're comfortable seeing women and hearing their stories and seeing them in their full humanity and complexity and anger and rage and sadness and humor and wrongness—all the ways women show up. That's what I find in my own life, that the women in it are so interesting, complicated, hilarious, insane, all of the stuff."
Netflix has yet to greenlight the series, but June Diane said the streamer asked them to write a script, meaning there's hope fans will see more of the Hanson family.
Even Howard and co-creator Marta Kauffman aren't quite ready to say goodbye, previously telling Entertainment Weekly that they'd be open to writing a Christmas movie if it gave them more time with the characters. Marta said they still have loads of ideas left, saying, "We had lots of things we always wanted to look into but either didn't have the time, or it just didn't make sense in whatever arc we were telling."
Part two of the final season of Grace and Frankie arrives on Netflix April 29.