‘iCarly’: Miranda Cosgrove, Jerry Trainor, and Nathan Kress Tease The Revival

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It’s been almost a decade, but Miranda Cosgrove is back to wake up the members of the iCarly nation. iCarly, Nickelodeon’s vlogging comedy that captured the world of influencers before it even existed, finally returns this week. Ahead of its premiere on Paramount+, Decider spoke to returning stars Miranda Cosgrove, Jerry Trainor, and Nathan Kress as well as new stars Laci Mosley and Jaidyn Triplett about how they updated the show for a 2021 audience — and, most importantly, what goes into a Baby Spencer sketch.

“Jerry and Nathan and I, when we first got the call to possibly do the revival, we’ve always been really concerned with making sure that the original fans feel like it was made for them and really enjoy it,” Cosgrove said. “That’s been the No. 1 thing in the back of all of our heads. I think we’re really making it for all those OG fans, and we definitely hope new people watch and enjoy it too. But there are a lot of Easter eggs and fun little things for the original viewers.”

The original iCarly ended with an episode that finally revealed Carly (Miranda Cosgrove) and Spencer’s (Jerry Trainor) long unseen father. Though Nathan Kress, the man behind Freddie, was happy with that conclusion, he was also excited for the chance to return to this world.

“We’ve realized how much story there really is left to tell. Especially just because we’re not just continuing it from being teenagers,” Kress said. “It really is fast forwarding 10 years to see where life has taken these people and how differently they find themselves from their late teens to their late 20s. That’s a big jump.”

Since iCarly will be focusing on an older version of Carly, Freddie, and Spencer, Paramount+’s version of the show will be a more mature one.

“A lot of the things that my character goes through this season I’ve gone through in real life. I’ve been set up on dates that definitely didn’t go the way I thought they were going to go. And just like navigating your 20s in general. So much happens in your 20s,” Cosgrove said. “I’m 28, but it’s just been fun getting to play the character now and getting to see all the different crazy stuff that happens to her, and what she goes through.”

“When the conversation started about revisiting the iCarly world, it was like, ‘Well, are we just going to be doing the same thing again? Like, is it going to be so wacky?’ None of us really wanted to do that,” Trainor added. “If we’re going to do it, let’s do it for the original fans. Let’s mirror the fans, where they are in their lives now, and maybe they never grew up, I don’t know. But they’re not kids anymore. So let’s be like that and grow up and make grown-up jokes and so that we bring them back into the fold and they feel like, ‘Oh, this is familiar, but very different and mature.'”

iCarly Revival
Photo: Paramount+

But just because Carly, Spencer, and Freddie are getting more mature that doesn’t mean they’ve actually grown up. The first trailer for the reboot featured a new Baby Spencer sketch. One of the most popular recurring bits from the original iCarly, the skit involves shoving Trainor as Spencer into a baby crib and covering his face with food or various substances.

“One of the things that I think Nathan and Jeanette [McCurdy] and I enjoyed the most was torturing Jerry as Baby Spencer, which we revisit in the pilot,” Cosgrove said. “I got to do an entire skin care routine on him while he was trapped in his Baby Spencer outfit. That was just it was really fun, and it definitely took me back to when I was 13.”

Though Baby Spencer was listed as Cosgrove, Kress, and Jaidyn Triplett’s favorite iCarly bit, Trainor has a more complicated relationship with the stunt. “I love it as much as I did the first time!” Trainor joked. “It’s a nightmare and it’s difficult. I’m 6’3 and they crumble me up into a little box, and they shove my head through a hole, and then they throw crap on my face until I can’t breathe. It’s exactly what you think it is.”

“The highlight of my week,” Kress added.

That reaction is why Trainor puts up with this objectively silly scene time and time again. “Once you hear the laughter it makes it all worthwhile. That was one of those bits where the crew, because this crew didn’t work on the original, they don’t know. So they were like, ‘What is he doing? What is this going to be?’ Then we just started doing it and the camera guys were cracking up. It was awesome,” Trainor said. “It’s going to be how I go. I have a living will drafted just in case I die by being Baby Spencer.”

“If he dies by being Baby Spencer, we all get his stuff,” Kress joked. “That’s why everyone kind of wants to kill him a little bit.”

iCarly reboot trailer still
Photo: YouTube/Paramount+

Though most of the new iCarly is a return to form, there are some distinct differences in this reboot. Jennette McCurdy will not be returning to the series to reprise her role as Sam. Instead, Carly’s counterpart will be her roommate, Harper (Laci Mosley).

“Harper and Carly are a very fun duo. They are both messy, they are both really into dragging each other into each other’s mess and pushing each other to do crazy things,” Mosley said about her new character. “Harper loves to set Carly up on insane terrible dates, and Carly loves to slowly rope Harper into her schemes, but she’s a little bit more manipulative about it so you don’t see it coming. But their relationship is super fun.”

This new take is also giving Freddie a stepdaughter. In the 2021 version of the series Freddie has gone through two divorces, which has brought the cheeky Millicent (Jaidyn Triplett) into his life.

“She definitely has a lot in her personality… One time you’ll see her and she’s like, ‘Hello,’ and then one time she’s like, ‘You do this when I tell you to,'” Triplett said. As a fan of iCarly being part of the reboot was especially exciting for the young actor. “I started watching the show a little bit before I actually got the audition for the role. I’ve definitely been fangirling over Nathan, Miranda, Jerry, and all those people and then I finally got to meet them. That was just so cool being able to see them in real life.”

Over its six seasons on the air, iCarly gave audiences the perfect kid-friendly sitcom. But it also did something more extraordinary, capturing our content-focused online world before that was the norm.

“When I was first approached when I was 12 about doing iCarly, I remember sitting there and thinking, ‘What’s a web show, and why would why would the character have a web show?’ Now it’s like every kid has a YouTube channel or an Instagram page or a TikTok,” Cosgrove said. “It’s just been fun getting to see where the character Carly is now in the world of the internet because before, the first few seasons of the show, we were kind of making up the rules because people didn’t really have web shows. Now, everybody is so creative online and does so many different things, so there’s a lot more to work with. It’s interesting trying to see what Carly’s going to do with that.”

Watch iCarly on Paramount+