Julia Louis-Dreyfus Explains Why Seinfeld's Elaine and Jerry Never Dated

Elaine and Jerry David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

There was nothing going on with Elaine and Jerry on Seinfeld, but according to star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, there almost was.

“Oh, the network wanted it! They wanted a ‘will-they, won’t-they,’ all that crap,” Louis-Dreyfus, 63, said in a Sunday Times profile published on Sunday, August 4. “But Larry [David, the show’s creator] was just immovable on that point. The show was built on doing things that were outside the norm, so doing something stereotypical would have been atypical of the show.”

Seinfeld aired for nine seasons between 1989 and 1998, following four single friends in New York City. Louis-Dreyfus portrayed Elaine opposite Jerry Seinfeld’s Jerry. Their crew was rounded out by George Costanza (Jason Alexander) and Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards).

At the time, Louis-Dreyfus was one of the few women on the set.

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“It was very male, but that felt familiar to me so I knew how to navigate it,” the actress recalled to the British newspaper. “When I started out in show business in the 1980s, there was no awareness about trying to … I was going to say diversify as if adding women is a diversification, but it is. But now there is awareness, and that’s a good thing.”

While it’s been more than two decades since Seinfeld wrapped, it has remained a pop culture staple. The cast also hasn’t ruled out a reunion.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney

“Well, I have a little secret for you about the ending, and I can’t really tell it,” Seinfeld, 70, quipped during an October 2023 standup show. “Here’s what I’ll tell you, you can’t tell anybody. Something is going to happen that has to do with that ending. It hasn’t happened yet. Just what you are thinking about, Larry and I have also been thinking about. So, you’ll see.”

Days later, Louis-Dreyfus was asked about a reunion possibility during an interview with England’s The Guardian.

“I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about,” Louis-Dreyfus quipped before noting she is unsure about what her own future holds. “I don’t know! Who the hell knows?”

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While a Seinfeld reunion remains up in the air, Louis-Dreyfus is staying booked and busy. One of her most anticipated projects is 2025’s The Thunderbolts, a Marvel Cinematic Universe team-up starring Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour and more. Louis-Dreyfus will reprise her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Black Widow role of Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

“In this film, she certainly takes advantage of people we’ve come to think of as underdogs and uses that to her advantage,” she teased to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month at San Diego Comic-Con. “It was fun for me to play a hyper-manipulative person who is about four steps ahead of everyone in the piece, and that was cool. And I did my share of kicking ass.”