Why Lizzy Caplan Isn't Involved In The Party Down Revival

When you become a fan of a TV show, it's fair to say that you want those involved to have successful careers. In fact, you probably don't want them to just succeed. You want your favorite stars to thrive, especially if that series that you love will not be continuing.

When "Arrested Development" ended in 2006 after three seasons, the cast went on to star in fan-favorite films and series such as "Juno," "Despicable Me," "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," "Archer," "Veep," and more. Following the end of "Community," the study group likewise branched out into a variety of productions. (Jim Rash even won an Oscar.) And the same thing happened to the stars of "Party Down" following its cancellation.

As the creators of all three of these shows would later find out, owing to the level of fame achieved by those involved, it's hard to bring their in-demand casts completely back together again. "Arrested Development" found creative ways to work around their stars' busy schedules. The "#AndAMovie" part of the famous "Community" hashtag has been given the green light, but there's still uncertainty around the return of a few cast members. And the same thing happened to the Starz cult favorite comedy, as it was forced to move forward without one of the key players.

That's right. Unfortunately, Lizzy Caplan's Casey Klein won't be returning to "Party Down" when it comes back later this month for a highly-anticipated third season. But the creative forces behind the revival completely understand and don't hold it against her.

When it was announced that "Party Down" would be returning for a six-episode third season with essentially everyone RSVP-ing, it was disappointing to hear that Lizzy Caplan would be the only one not attending. But the reasons for her absence are totally, well, reasonable. Since her time with the titular catering company of struggling performers and creative types ended in 2010, Caplan's profile has considerably risen in Hollywood. Production on "Party Down" season 3 clashed with Caplan's work on the FX on Hulu miniseries "Fleishman Is in Trouble."

In a roundtable discussion with "Party Down" co-creator John Enbom, /Film's Ryan Scott asked about the Caplan situation and the various factors that contributed to the team moving on without her. Enbom elaborated:

"She was very much a part of it in those early days. We love working with her. We love her character. We thought it would be interesting to see where she was 12 years in and all that. It was just [that] everyone got famous since we did it the first time in a way that scheduling is now the monster for us, trying to figure out how to do stuff. She was the one that ended up just having all these other things lined up in such a way that we could not make it work."

While it's a huge bummer that Casey won't be joining Henry, Ron, Kyle, Roman, Constance, and Lydia for this reunion, hopefully, it's a hit and the network orders another one. Then at that point, we keep our fingers crossed that everyone's schedules match up because we definitely need to see Henry and Casey together again in at least one episode.

"Party Down" season 3 premieres on Starz on February 24, 2023.