Chad Michael Murray Explains Why He Was Recast In The “Gilmore Girls” Revival

Seen above is the Great Value Brad Pitt of early-00s television, Chad Michael Murray, as rich shithead Tristan Dugray in Gilmore Girls. Tristan was a main-ish character in the early seasons, so everyone figured that he would be brought back for Netflix’s revival, Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. So of course Tristan came back, but Chad Michael Murray didn’t.

In the second episode Spring, Rory and Paris spot “Tristan” upon returning to Chilton for a thing. It was one of the more laughably bad scenes from the revival, as Chad Michael Murray had been lazily replaced with some random blonde guy. While promoting CMTs Sun Records on Entertainment Tonight, Chad Michael Murray explained his Gilmore Girls impostor.

“I heard [it was happening] and I wasn’t available at the time. I’m pretty positive I was having a baby – my first child. It just did not work into what we were doing at that moment, so I know that somebody went out and was Tristan, but it wasn’t me. But I hear strong work, good job, man!”

The guy who did such a “good job” was an actor named Anton Narinskiy. You can see all 1.5 seconds of his “strong work” at the 0:29 mark.

Either Chad Michael Murray was just bullshitting his way through that interview, or that was shade. Strong work? Fake Tristan appears has zero lines of dialogue! He’s almost faced entirely away from the camera. Rory literally has to tell us who it is. Fake Tristan is one level up from putting a department store mannequin in a blonde wig and obscuring it behind a plant.

Chad Michael Murray has a good reason for skipping the Gilmore Girls revival. But something about his excuse seems fishy. He couldn’t take off an afternoon of diapers to film that 2-second scene? I bet it was because Netflix couldn’t afford to pay his huge TV star salary. After all, they clearly blew the budget on acting lessons for Rachael Ray.

Pic: Warner Bros.