The 'Roseanne' reboot got cancelled after just the first season over the strong backlash to comments made by its star Roseanne Barr on Twitter. But there's a chance ABC may move ahead with a new spinoff starring Sara Gilbert.
Fans of the show will know Gilbert for her much loved character 'Darlene' in the original 'Roseanne' show. And they were delighted to see her once again in the reboot that pulled in bumper ratings for ABC Entertainment.
But no sooner was the show getting off the ground again when Barr was accused of racism over tweets she made in relation to former Obama Administration official Valerie Jarrett. She had tweeted suggesting that Jarrett was the result of the "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes" coming together.
Gilbert was among those who quickly denounced Barr's comments, saying in a tweet: "Roseanne's recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least."
Barr says she apologized but any apology clearly wasn't enough as ABC Entertainment swiftly dropped the show. But as the other characters have a huge fan following of their own, there is now speculation that they may get some new screen life in a spinoff show without Barr.
The Hollywood Reporter claims to have heard from multiple sources that ABC is open to the idea of a spinoff so long as it does not involve Barr and she does not gain financially from it.
However, The Hollywood Reporter says going on with a new show may be challenging as the series was created by Matt Williams but the character was created by Roseanne Barr.
TMZ has reported that ABC is considering a reboot that would focus on Darlene instead of Roseanne. TMZ said ABC was desperate to save the jobs of the crew and writers involved in the reboot and that John Goodman, who plays Dan Conner, in the original show was "very interested."
Gilbert previously tweeted to say the past week had been "incredibly sad and difficult" for everyone.
She hasn't commented publicly yet on rumors of the 'Darlene' spinoff.
