Will & Grace adds Ryan Phillippe and Billie Lourd as guest stars for final season
Will and Grace are welcoming some new friends in their final season.
EW can exclusively reveal that Ryan Phillippe (Secrets and Lies, Shooter) and Billie Lourd (American Horror Story, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) will be guest-starring in the upcoming final season of Will & Grace when it returns to NBC in 2020.
Phillippe will be playing himself, while Lourd will play Fiona, a character described by NBC as “an edgy, self-confident modern woman who’s outspoken and irreverent.” But it turns out Fiona has a special tie to the show.
On Thursday afternoon, Will & Grace co-creator Max Mutchnick revealed on Instagram that Lourd’s character is the granddaughter of Bobbi Adler, who was played on the show by Debbie Reynolds, Lourd’s real-life grandmother.
“It’s Hollywood royalty on the Will & Grace stage this week,” Mutchnick wrote on his post. “I loved Debbie, I loved Carrie and I love this apple who did not fall far from her trees,” he said of Lourd.
Reynolds appeared as Grace’s mother, Bobbi Adler, on 10 episodes of the sitcom’s original run. Reynolds died in 2016 at age 84, just one day after the death of her daughter — Lourd’s mother — actress Carrie Fisher.
A post shared by Max Mutchnick (@maxmutchnick) on Sep 19, 2019 at 3:01pm PDT
The season 10 finale saw Will (Eric McCormack) potentially embarking on a long-distance relationship after his impromptu engagement to McCoy (Matt Bomer), while Grace (Debra Messing) made a spontaneous decision to go after what she really wanted, which all culminated in an epic dance number with Marcus (Reid Scott). Add in Jack’s airport wedding, and Karen’s coming out as straight and there’s plenty of drama to kick off season 11 — and that’s before we meet the new cast members.
EW previously shared that Demi Lovato has also been cast as a guest star in the upcoming season, with the singer-actress playing the role of Jenny, a guarded gal who comes into the life of Will in an unexpected way.
Will & Grace returns to screens for its final season in 2020.
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