'iCarly' Cast Opens Up About Jennette McCurdy's Decision to Avoid Reboot and Sam's Status Today (Exclusive)

The iCarly cast is excited to bring the Nickelodeon series back to the small screen!

Miranda Cosgrove, Jerry Trainor and Nathan Kress return for the Paramount+ reboot. However, the trio chatted exclusively with ET's Leanne Aguilera about Jennette McCurdy's absence and how the revival will address her character Sam's status.

"Yeah, definitely. We talk a lot about the Sam character and where she is in the pilot episode," Cosgrove shares. "And Carly very much still loves Sam and always will. And we all really wanted Jennette to be a part of the show in real life. But she's just doing other things and we're really happy for her. But yeah, we're definitely going to touch on that in the show."

Back in March, McCurdy revealed that she quit acting a couple of years ago, explaining how she never wanted to act and was forced to by her family. During an episode of her podcast, Empty Inside, the 28-year-old admitted to being "ashamed" of her career and past roles, ultimately saying goodbye to acting.

"The pilot touches on [Sam's absence]," Trainor tells ET. "It will be addressed, but it's not something that we go too deep into just because we just want to respect Jennette's wishes."

"You know, she's decided to move on from acting and she's doing great in her own world and we're super proud of her," he says. "And she's part of this family forever. But that sort of gives us space to get new characters in and have new unexpected storylines and voices."

The new iCarly series features two new cast members, Laci Mosley as Harper, Carly’s roommate and best friend, and Jaidyn Triplett, who will portray Millicent, Freddie’s snarky and social media-savvy stepdaughter. However, the original cast notes that the door is always open for McCurdy to return to the show.

"Anytime!" Cosgrove expresses, with Trainor adding, "I mean, that elevator door is always open."

"It never closed," Kress quips. "But again, we want to be respectful of her and the decisions that she's made and no pressure, of course. But whatever she wants to do. We love her and that's all she needs to know."

iCarly picks up nearly 10 years after Nickelodeon's original show ended, and finds Carly Shay (Cosgrove) -- the original influencer -- and her friends navigating work, love, and family in their twenties.

"It's evolved a lot," Cosgrove says of the new iteration. "When I started the first show, I was 13 years old and most of the experiences and things my character was going through on the show were things I was going through in real life. And now I just turned 28 and my character is going through all the things you go through in your late twenties. So it's just been really fun getting to play the character again and getting to see where her life has taken her."

iCarlypremieres June 17 on Paramount+ with the first three episodes. Subsequent episodes will drop weekly, exclusively for Paramount+ subscribers.

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