Mitch HaddadScandal fans are in for a treat. The series' anticipated return, you know, the one that would reveal the results of the presidential election—Will it be Mellie Grant (Bellamy Young) or Francisco Vargas (Ricardo Chavira)?—was pushed back a week to Thursday, Jan. 26 by ABC for an inauguration special ahead of Donald Trump taking the White House. But you don't have to wait a week for new Scandal thanks to Darby Stanchfield's Scandal: Gladiator Wanted, E! News has confirmed.
Stanchfield, Abby Whelan on the series, created and directed the new web series that will debut all of its two or three minute episodes on Thursday, Jan. 19, the show's original premiere date. Scandal: Gladiator Wanted follows Huck (Guillermo Diaz), Quinn (Katie Lowes) and Marcus (Cornelius Smith Jr.) interviewing interns for a job with Olivia Pope and Associates. George Newbern, Charlie on Scandal, will also appear. The episodes will drop on ABC.com and on the ABC app.
Scandal's script coordinate Juan Carlos Fernandez wrote the series that drops at 10 a.m. PST.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Stanchfield said she was inspired to step behind the camera after watching Tony Goldwyn, President Fitzgerald Grant on the series, helm and episode.
"When you see the first episode of Scandal season six if you have seen Gladiator Wanted you will be like, 'Oh OK!' There are some new reveals in the first episode and Gladiator Wanted connects a couple of those dots," Stanchfield told THR, which first broke the news.
"It really goes back to those classic days at OPA that are brought back from the very first couple of seasons. There's a similar tone and humor and a lot of inside Gladiator jokes," she said.
Scandal returns Thursday, Jan. 26 at 9 p.m. on ABC, and the network promises the "shocking results lead to an explosive outcome."