A New Year, a new Zoey's?
After premiering on NBC in Jan. 2020, Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist was cancelled after two seasons before being picked up by the Roku Channel for festive feature-length holiday film Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas, now streaming. Now, lead stars (and one of our favorite on-screen TV couples) Jane Levy and Skylar Astin exclusively revealed to E! News what's next in store for Zoey's.
"When we found out the show wasn't getting picked up, it was a shock," Levy admitted. "We were resurrected basically from the dead but we were only dead for a week. It was just really heartwarming to hear the reaction from the fans and the support from them, because without them, I don't think this would have happened."
Levy added, "For me, it feels like home in many ways."
Co-star Astin explained that he "just felt grateful" to be able to continue telling the story at the heart of Zoey's.
"We thought there was a chance we would never do it again," he reflected. "It's rare where you get that opportunity. We all felt so fortunate to be there and we're just really appreciating all the really great things this series brought us and the relationships it brought us, on and off camera."
Levy, who called Zoey's her "legacy," hopes that Zoey's will find another life following the Christmas movie.
"The landscape of TV has changed so much and there are all these shows coming back after 10 years, 20 years, 30 years," she explained. "For us, we were saved by Roku but it had not been very much time at all. It didn't feel like this grand reunion, but I guess the vibe was a little different because we all thought this could be our last chance."
She continued, "When we wrapped season two, we didn't hug as if it was our final goodbye to these characters. In a way, this was a beautiful way to honor what we have done for the past three years, which is give our hearts and souls to these characters and this story."
Astin said that he doesn't know what's next for the series, but that the ending for Extraordinary Christmas left room for both Zoey and Max to grow. "I don't think that we completely wrap it up, but I don't think we also leave audiences on some sort of an unfair cliffhanger," he shared. "I really think that Max and Zoey are meant to be, and I really think that they'll end up together. I don't think that that is some sort of a destination for that relationship."
Astin added, "A lot of times at the end of a series, the two people you want to get together, get together, and it's kind of final. I do think that they're going to be together but I also think as a team, they work really well. I liked exploring that dynamic as best friends and boyfriend and girlfriend with Jane."
Could a Zoey's musical wedding be in the works?
Levy was looking even further ahead: Zoey's Extraordinary Labor.
"She's having a baby and hearing her baby sing to her. Maybe that's what I want to do," Levy joked.
As Astin pointed out, "We've shown with this movie that these characters can exist anywhere, with any background—whether it's holiday or movie-form," so why not take it one step further?
For now, at least, Astin is holding out hope for more Zoey's in the future.
"This was something very special and unique and I don't want to just kind of do anything next," he noted. "I'm really kind of waiting for something to speak to me the way Zoey's did."
Zoey's Extraordinary Christmas is now streaming on the Roku Channel.