Ginny & Georgia is gearing up for season 4 — but should fans expect any changes to one particular character?
The third season of the Netflix hit, which premiered on Thursday, June 5, had viewers talking for a few reasons, one being Diesel La Torraca — who is actually 14 years old — playing Ginny’s 9-year-old brother, Austin. Creator Sarah Lampert, however, confirmed exclusively to Us Weekly that there are no plans to bring in a new cast member.
“Anyone who works on the show will tell you I am fastidious about the details. I am just specific with so many things. Then things like Diesel growing five years [older], I’m like, ‘Whatever.’ Because you can’t control it,” Lampert quipped. “We can’t recast. Diesel is Austin.”
Lampert asked fans to “suspend their disbelief” because La Torraca “grew [up] and it’s a TV show.” According to Lampert, season 4 of Ginny & Georgia will “really lean into” La Torraca being a teenager in real life.
“There are a few jokes we’re planning to make. We’re aware that he’s growing up and that helps us,” she continued. “Honestly, it serves us because now he’s really a part of the family in a way that he wasn’t before. He was just a little kid. Now with everything we put him through in season 3 and having him enter season 4 as a preteen, he’s entering the chat in a way that he hasn’t before.”
Austin is expected to play an even bigger role when the show returns.
“I think [that] is a really interesting dynamic,” Lampert teased. “You don’t want to do a big time leap because that really misses emotional storytelling. Because of that, the flashbacks already make no sense in terms of the timeline of the flashbacks. Time is but a construct in Wellsbury.”
Ginny & Georgia, which premiered in 2021, follows a young single mother who moves her family to Wellsbury, Massachusetts, after running away from her past. In addition to La Torraca, the Netflix series also stars Brianne Howey, Antonia Gentry, Felix Mallard, Sara Waisglass, Scott Porter and Raymond Ablack.
Season 2 wrapped up filming in early 2022, but production on the third installment started two years later following the dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Luckily, viewers don’t have to wait as long for season 4, which is already being written.
“Between season 2 ending and season 3 beginning, nothing really changed or shifted. I would just say that the season was really fleshed out once we had the writers’ room up and running. I knew what the tent poles were going to be,” Lampert noted. “When we wrote season 2, there [were] certain things we planned all the way back from season 1. Now there are certain other things that we planned from season 2.”
She continued: “But when you’re in the writers’ room is when you really [expand on the story]. Nothing really shifted between the wait of seasons 2 and 3, but once the writers’ room was up and cooking for season 3 — knowing that we had a season 4 changed how we approached this season.”
Lampert also hinted at where Austin’s story line is headed next after he ended up on the outs with sister Ginny (Gentry) in season 3.
“The DNA of those characters is entwined. Two things can be true at the same time. On one hand, Ginny is in a healthy place and she’s really established firm boundaries. She’s not taking anyone’s s***. But at the same time, something has really broken within her to get there,” Lampert explained. “And Georgia recognizes that. It’s the same thing that broke within Georgia. She doesn’t want her kids to have to do that.”
Season 4 will be big for the Miller family, with Lampert adding, “Georgia finally is recognizing that they may have carried a little bit more of the weight than she thought they did in her choices. But she needed to do it to grow as a character because I love all three of them.”
Ginny & Georgia is currently streaming on Netflix.
