When it was announced that “Party Down” would be returning for a six-episode third season with essentially everyone RSVP-ing, it was disappointing to hear that Lizzy Caplan would be the only one not attending. But the reasons for her absence are totally, well, reasonable. Since her time with the titular catering company of struggling performers and creative types ended in 2010, Caplan’s profile has considerably risen in Hollywood. Production on “Party Down” season 3 clashed with Caplan’s work on the FX on Hulu miniseries “Fleishman Is in Trouble.”
In a roundtable discussion with “Party Down” co-creator John Enbom, /Film’s Ryan Scott asked about the Caplan situation and the various factors that contributed to the team moving on without her. Enbom elaborated:
“She was very much a part of it in those early days. We love working with her. We love her character. We thought it would be interesting to see where she was 12 years in and all that. It was just [that] everyone got famous since we did it the first time in a way that scheduling is now the monster for us, trying to figure out how to do stuff. She was the one that ended up just having all these other things lined up in such a way that we could not make it work.”
While it’s a huge bummer that Casey won’t be joining Henry, Ron, Kyle, Roman, Constance, and Lydia for this reunion, hopefully, it’s a hit and the network orders another one. Then at that point, we keep our fingers crossed that everyone’s schedules match up because we definitely need to see Henry and Casey together again in at least one episode.
“Party Down” season 3 premieres on Starz on February 24, 2023.