After ending their seven-season run in 2007, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore—the coffee-loving mother-and-daughter duo at the center of cult-favorite television series Gilmore Girls—are back with a highly anticipated revival. The long-awaited Netflix series made its official debut at its Los Angeles premiere on Friday night, where it received thunderous applause.

Cheering fans lined up outside the Bruin Theater to catch a glimpse of stars Lauren Graham and Alexis Bledel—and some waited more than five hours to watch the advance screening of the first installment of Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, which will debut on November 25. The mini-series has been split into four 90-minute parts covering each season of the year, beginning with “Winter.”

Vanity Fair caught up with the show’s cast and creators to get some new details ahead of the heartfelt dramedy’s return next week.

“It’s been amazing to revisit these characters all these years later. When the show ended, I wasn’t done. I was left wanting more. So it’s just incredible to get to do it again,” said Graham. “I love playing Lorelai. I always felt a kinship with this part. There’s a joy and a wonder in how she approaches everything. She’s always upbeat, and I love her sense of humor and the lens through which she sees the world. It’s very uplifting and an energizing part to play. It’s really one of the best written roles.”

For Bledel, reprising the role of Rory—which she began playing at the age of 18—was an offer she couldn’t refuse, especially since it meant another chance to work with Gilmore creator Amy Sherman-Palladino and her writer-director husband, Daniel Palladino, who was also an executive producer on the original series. Though they had full creative control over the revival, both had left the show after its sixth season due to contractual disputes with the CW. The show was canceled a year later due to low ratings.

“Coming back was a rare opportunity, and a surreal experience,” said Bledel. “I am proud of what we have accomplished. This was really Amy’s vision, and the story she has created is something very real and honest, especially with my character. You will see Rory as still the hard worker working in journalism, but she’s a little lost and doesn’t have everything figured out in life.”

The revival picks up with the residents of Stars Hollow nearly a decade after the original show wrapped. Viewers will experience the same witty, rapid-fire pop-culture commentary from Lorelai and Rory that made the original such a touchstone—but the new series also sees a deeper and more complex rift between Lorelai and her mother Emily (Kelly Bishop), due largely to the death of Richard Gilmore. Actor Edward Herrmann, who played the family patriarch, died from brain cancer in 2014. His passing has been incorporated into the show, and is the central story line in the first installment.

“The biggest difference is all these people are grown-up. There’s still a lot of jokes and light moments, but this time it has a greater depth,” said Graham. “There’s death and sadness and more love and emotion. I cried the whole way through the entire script. I thought it was just beautiful and fitting and what I wanted it to be and hoped for.”

With expectations high, will fans be as satisfied as the cast members? The show-runners teased whether loose ends will be answered in the follow-up series. “There is some closure, but life goes on,” said Palladino. “So there’s no neat wrap up in anything that we ever write whether it’s Gilmore Girls or any other project because life is . . .” “Messy,” Sherman-Palladino added.