Before he was the late Jack Pearson on "This Is Us," Ventimiglia got his big break playing Jess Mariano on "Gilmore Girls." Luke's troubled, bad-boy nephew manages to offend nearly the entire town but grows close to Rory. He was a series regular for two seasons and popped up from time to time for two other seasons, plus the Netflix revival.
Ventimiglia's character on "Maisel" is something of a mystery, though he's definitely playing someone who connects with Midge. In June 2021, while the fourth season was in production, Daniel Palladino did a Q&A at the Nantucket Film Festival and revealed why they finally decided the time was right to reunite on screen with Ventimiglia. "You have to see it in context because it's actually a very different thing we're doing with him," he said (via TVLine). "We needed someone of his caliber and his handsomeness, so we asked Milo to do it. But you have to see it in the context."
