Forget the hot cocoa this holiday season, we’re ready to order a cup of coffee at Stars Hollow’s prime diner spot, Luke’s after Walmart’s latest ad which sees Lauren Graham and Scott Patterson reunite to reprise their Gilmore Girls roles as Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Daines.
The 30-second promo (below) returns to the fictional Connecticut town just in time for the holidays as snow falls across the town square, and Kirk (Sean Gunn) delivers a box to Luke’s. When Lorelai enters the diner, she asks for “coffee, coffee, coffee, please,” to which Luke responds by presenting her with the box.
When Lorelai opens the parcel, she uncovers a Keurig machine, and when she notes that Luke “shouldn’t have” gotten her the gift, he says, “I had to. You’re drinking me out of business.” The whole interaction certainly feels like something plucked from the original show which ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007 on the WB (and later on The CW).
This is just the latest reunion for Graham and Patterson’s characters onscreen after 2016’s Netflix revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, which featured four episodes. As fans of Gilmore Girls will recall, the series from Amy Sherman-Palladino followed single mom Lorelai as she raised her daughter Rory (Alexis Bledel) in Stars Hollow.
When fans last saw Luke and Lorelai, they’d finally made their relationship official by getting married, and Rory revealed to her mother that she was pregnant. Since then, fans haven’t gotten any character updates, but this ad is a fun glimpse into their lives right now.
“It’s always a little surreal [returning to Stars Hollow] because we were back where we’ve been so many times,” Graham told People. According to the star, her onscreen daughter from Parenthood, Mae Whitman, was behind the scenes for the shooting of the promo. “It was a particularly odd day for me because there’s just so much familiarity with that character and seeing Scott and being in that place,” Graham shared with the outlet. “And then Mae Whitman, my TV daughter from another universe, was there with her baby. It was just really, really fun and a great opportunity.”
As for Patterson, he revealed, “It was just wonderful to see her and work with her again and Sean as well… I’ll always cherish the time I got to spend with Lauren and act with her because she’s literally an icon. And that is just growing as the years go by.” As Patterson put it, Graham is his “favorite scene partner.”
What did you think of the sweet reunion? Let us know in the comments section, and check out the video for yourself, above.
Gilmore Girls, Streaming now, Netflix
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Streaming now, Netflix
