The one role Jennifer Garner would love to play again: “Sign me up”
We can’t get enough of the noughties. With studios and streaming services constantly seeking easy and assured profits, reboots and remakes are hitting with less and less time between each instalment. There’s already a Harry Potter remake in production, a Devil Wears Prada sequel scheduled for next year and 28 Weeks Later is currently in cinemas; clearly, nostalgia sells best.
And with a filmography ripe for nostalgia farming, what would noughties sweetheart Jennifer Garner return to, if anything? From small parts in Dude Where’s My Car? and the box-office bomb Elektra, to the iconic and beloved 13 Going on 30, which lives in the same realm as The Devil Wears Prada, there’s no doubt that fans would love to see a return—perhaps for a lament on aging, “50 Going on 30”.
According to Garner, one role that she’s more than keen to return to is secret agent Sydney Bristow in Alias. A spy thriller that ran from 2001 to 2006, Alias established Garner as a leading woman and shot her to fame. As Sydney Bristow, she played a CIA double agent with different— you guessed it—aliases, pretty much every week.
It was part of the wave of television in the ’90s and ’00s that focused on strong female characters like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Xena: Warrior Princess, which was well-received, and ratings remained high until its fourth season.
After Garner and showrunner JJ Abrams were rumoured to be reuniting for a limited series on Apple TV+, many fans hoped it would be for a return to the iconic agent Bristow. However, it turned out to be for a different show, My Glory Was I Had Such Friends. While Garner ended up pulling out of the production due to scheduling conflicts, she kept Alias fans’ hopes high with her open mind to reprising the role.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, she said, “Sign me up…grab Bradley by the scruff of the neck”.
The Bradley mentioned is, in fact, Bradley Cooper, who played Bristow’s best friend and local reporter in the show. The two have remained close friends since their time on the series, and while fans would no doubt be even more buzzed for the two together, it’s doubtful he’d be up for it. Back then, he was just starting out, but now he’s a big shot director as well as an actor.
While fans might not get the entire cast back together again, Garner’s willingness to return to the role offers some hope. After all, she did kind of just return to Elektra, even if it was just a cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine. But it certainly shows she still has it.
