Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel have proven time and again that, where they lead, fans will follow.

And that probably includes to Hulu and Disney+ once Gilmore Girls' 12-year run on Netflix ends June 30.

But the actresses take that responsibility seriously, which is why they won't sign up for just anything to keep the story of Lorelai Gilmore and her daughter Rory Gilmore going.

Well, maybe Graham—who's collaborating on a book about the show with series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino—would, the 59-year-old telling E! News in 2024 she'd "play this character given any opportunity."

At the same time, lightning rarely strikes the same place twice, let alone three times. And even if another return to Stars Hollow as a follow-up to Netflix's four-episode Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life—which will remain on the streamer—could answer a few burning questions, is that really what the people want?

"Now is the time to announce a ten years later season for a year in the life !!!!!!!!!," greentreecups commented on an Emmys red carpet clip posted to the official Gilmore Girls Instagram. Added lianamodonova, "Can we have another season please!"

First of all, wow, it has been almost a decade since Sherman-Palladino and her husband/cowriter Daniel Palladino brought the loquacious mother-daughter duo—plus Scott Patterson's Luke, Kelly Bishop's Emily, Matt Czuchry's Logan, Melissa McCarthy's Sookie, etc.—back for a follow-up chapter.

So, with the leaves about to turn and the scent of pumpkin spice in the air, it's hard to not get a little starry-eyed about the idea of a cozy catch-up with Rory, Lorelai and everyone who mattered to them.

And we may not be the only ones who feel that way.

But they famously didn't know that Gilmore Girls' seventh-season finale in 2007 would be the series finale, so those words—the full-circle "Mom?" "Yeah?" "I'm pregnant"—had to wait until 2016.

"So it did feel like a cliffhanger," Graham acknowledged. "I think it was. I think maybe the thought was we would go into another season then. But I have never asked and I don't know."

And she's way too superstitious to ask now. "I don't want to see behind the curtain," she said, "like, did they not feel like doing it? Did Netflix not feel like doing it? Were we waiting? What were they waiting on? There's just a little bit of movie magic that I would like to maintain." 

Patterson said after they wrapped in 2016 that "it'd be nice to do it every year," telling The Hollywood Reporter it was fun and easy. But, he added, "It was really rewarding and people got a sense that, if this was going to be the last thing, that we now have some closure."

At least we know that Lorelai and Luke are "definitely still together,” as Graham told E!, thanks to her and Patterson's Stars Hollow-set 2024 Walmart ad.

Which, thanks to its snowy setting, may have sparked her idea for a special that would take place in the season that comes after fall.

"Given everyone's lives and schedules, it's a Christmas movie," Graham noted on a March episode of her Parenthood costar Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast. "It's not me trying to get out of the [GG revival] question. It is literally what I could picture."

Graham told Shepard, "I do still get asked, is it literally just better to leave them wanting more? I don't know. Thank God it isn't up to me. And what I have clearly said, is if somebody calls me to do it, I'll do it."

And Rory wouldn't just have her mom by her side.

"Amy's so talented that if she was excited about an idea," Keiko Agena, a.ka. Rory's bestie Lane, told E! in June 2024, "and if she had a way that she wanted to tell some of these stories, if people were available, I think everyone would be interested in finding where these characters are now."

What is clear is that there would be nowhere for Lorelai to go (in this timeline, as opposed to a prequel) without Rory.

And Bledel has been much more circumspect about revisiting GG after the events of A Year in the Life.

The Netflix revival "really seemed like the right thing," the Handmaid's Tale star said during Hulu’s Television Critics Association press day in January 2017.

So, she continued, "The only thing I can say about a future installment of the show would be that it would be about the story and certainly the timing. We want to tell a great story. It all lives in [Sherman-Palladino’s] imagination. She has a very clear vision and always has. We haven’t had input as to the story or the characters on that show very much. A Year in the Life, we did a little bit more than the original round of the show, but it really is all Amy."

At the time, Sherman-Palladino got her last four words in and was sticking to 'em.

"We really had a very specific journey in our minds, and we fulfilled the journey," she told The Hollywood Reporter before the revival dropped and was devoured by millions. "So to us, this is the piece that we wanted to do. And the whole thought about, 'Is there more, is there more, is there more?'—this has to go out into the universe now. We've got to put this to bed. And then whatever happens, happens."

But despite all the thought that would have to go into such an endeavor, it was a no-brainer for Graham and Bledel to say yes to presenting together at the Emmys.

"There really wasn't anything planned to celebrate the 25th," Graham told THR on the red carpet before the show, "and it wasn't exactly a reunion, because we've seen each other. But to honor the show in this way feels like the party we didn't quite have. Maybe we'll be better prepared for the 30th."

And it's not as if there aren't seven seasons, plus four 90-minute days in the life, to enjoy in the meantime on Hulu or Netflix. Read on for behind-the-scenes Gilmore Girls secrets you can rattle off to your closest confidante over coffee: