For someone so consistently friendly and optimistic, Leslie Knope has a made a lot of enemies throughout Parks and Rec's six seasons. By now, most Parks fans probably even have their own favorite enemies or some kind of ranking—Tammy two beats Marcia Langman every time, obviously. We might be lucky enough to see one of the series most memorable (but least vicious) bad guys return, as in a recent interview with Bustle, Paul Rudd reveals he would like to return to Parks as Bobby Newport for the series' seventh and final season. It's not a sure thing, but we're really hoping to see Newport again because as far as enemies go, he's much more preferable than last season's Councilman Jeremy Jamm.
As difficult as it is for me to bring this up, we've only got one season of Parks left, so every detail counts. Rather than see more of Jamm's unnecessarily cruel antics for another whole season, wouldn't it be nice to watch Leslie face off against the dim-witted, naive Newport again? And seriously, who would say no to having more of Rudd in their lives? Luckily, it seems like Rudd likes playing Newport as much as we like watching him.
At the New York premiere of his latest movie They Came Together, which also happens to star Amy Poehler, Rudd seemed eager to return to Parks. When asked if Newport will appear in the final season he says, "It would be fun, I would like it...We'll see." It's not a confirmation, but it's definitely not a no either. If Rudd is so willing to come back, I doubt anyone from Parks would object and based on last season's finale, it can't be too hard to work him into a storyline.
Thanks to the major twist that happened in the finale's last few moments, almost anything is possible for Parks' final season. It's three years into the future, Newport could be challenging Leslie for her current job, or Ben for his, or attending the fancy event that Ben was on his way to before Leslie's mysterious work emergency got in the way. Three years into the future, Newport could be the new mayor of Pawnee and Jamm could be living across the world.
So Rudd's on board and there are numerous ways to work Newport into the plot, that means the only potential roadblock is really timing. Rudd will probably be pretty busy filming Ant-Man for a while, but let's be as optimistic as Leslie and hope that he manages to squeeze in a quick visit to Pawnee. Maybe if we're really lucky, he'll get rid of Jamm for good while he's in town.
