The voice of a generation — or at least a voice of a generation — is not finished quite yet.
In a surprise announcement, HBO said on Tuesday that “Girls,” the 2010s comedy about millennials from Lena Dunham, would return for a five-episode run. The network did not specify when the new episodes would air or stream, but said that filming would begin next year, a decade since the show went off the air.
Ms. Dunham, the creator and star of the show who is now 40, will return as Hannah Horvath, that aspiring generational voice, along with Allison Williams (Marnie), Jemima Kirke (Jessa), Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna), and Andrew Rannells (Elijah).
“I’ve missed these characters, but for a long time I couldn’t quite picture them in the present day,” Ms. Dunham said in a statement. “Then, right around my fortieth birthday, they started talking to me in the shower. And, as you may remember, once this fivesome starts talking it’s pretty hard to get them to stop.”
Judd Apatow, who was critical to getting the show on the air at HBO, will return as an executive producer.
There were, however, some notable omissions from HBO’s announcement. Neither Adam Driver, who played Ms. Dunham’s on-again, off-again love interest in the show, nor Jenni Konner, the co-showrunner with Ms. Dunham during its original run, were mentioned.
In her recently published memoir, “Famesick,” Ms. Dunham describes difficult working relationships with Ms. Konner and Mr. Driver. Ms. Dunham split professionally from Ms. Konner in 2018.
HBO has been no stranger to reviving older comedies in recent years, sometimes without former cast members. In 2021, HBO premiered “And Just Like That…,” a “Sex and the City” spinoff that reunited several original cast members but did not include Kim Cattrall, the actress who played Samantha and who refused to return. “And Just Like That…” lasted three seasons.
During its six-season run, “Girls” never fared that well in the ratings, generally averaging under a million live and same-day viewers. But it frequently kicked off scores of think-pieces and essays in national publications and Tumblr posts. Many younger viewers also discovered the show in recent years, a fact that HBO executives have been aware of.
In a video posted on YouTube on Tuesday announcing the return of the show, Ms. Dunham looks at her four castmates during a video call and raises a question.
“Can we still call it ‘Girls?’” she asks. “Because we’re like old as —” before the video of Ms. Dunham cuts off and title card for the show appears.
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