Sofía Vergara Says She Jokingly Reminds Ed O'Neill 'Don't Die' So They Can Make aModern Family'Sequel' One Day

Mar. 15, 2025

Sofia Vergara (left), Ed O’Neill.Photo:Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic; ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty

Sofía Vergarahas some long-term plans when it comes to the future ofModern Family.

Four years afterthe beloved series ended, the actress said she’d “die” to be back on set with her fictional family. However, she knows that it’s still too soon forthe Pritchett, Dunphy and Tucker family’sreturn. But Vergara, 52, does have an ongoing joke with her former onscreen husband,Ed O’Neill, regarding a potential follow-up to the show, which aired for 11 seasons from 2009 to 2020.

Vergara toldVarietythat after seeing O’Neill, 78, inClipped, she said to him, “You look f—ing old,” before revealing that his age is a topic of conversation with regards to the show.

“I always joke with him, ‘Ed, don’t die. Because if we do the sequel, it will take some time, and you’re the oldest of us. You can’t be dead!'” Vergara said of how she teases the actor, who played Jay Pritchett, the husband of her character Gloria Pritchett.

Sofía Vergara as Gloria, Ed O’Neill as Jay Pritchett on ‘Modern Family’.Eric McCandless/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Eric McCandless/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Her costarSarah Hylandhassimilarly expressed interest in potentially revisiting the series, on which she starred as Haley Dunphy, telling PEOPLE in June, “I love the cast with my entire heart and soul… I would love to be back with everybody.”

She noted, however, that the storyline would affect whether she’d be on board or not. “I think creatively for me, I would want to know what as going on with Haley. I want to see her career back and stuff and her creativity, and I want her to be able to do both.”

Hyland, 33, added that she’d want to see her character do what her onscreen mom, Claire (Julie Bowen) “set out to do and did as an amazing mother as well as a businesswoman and CEO.”

Last November,Vergara wrangled the cast together for their first reunionsince the show’s conclusion in 2020, and everyone butTy Burrellwas in attendance for the occassion.

“It was very special,” Vergara told PEOPLE afterward. “The day before I came from the Bahamas, and today I had this [event], so I’m exhausted, but it was so worth it.”

She shared that it was “the first time we had all seen each other in almost four years,” making it “very exciting for all of us.”

Ed O’neill, Sofia Vergara, Ariel Winter, Sarah Hyland, Rico Rodriguez, Nolan Gould, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Eric Stonestreet in ‘Modern Family’.Peter “Hopper” Stone/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Peter “Hopper” Stone/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Vergara, O’Neill, Bowen, Hyland,Eric Stonestreet,Jesse Tyler Ferguson,Ariel Winter,Rico Rodriguez,Nolan GouldandAubrey Anderson-Emmonswere all in attendance, as well as theshowrunners Chris Lloyd and Steve Levitan, who Stonestreet joked were the cast’s “two dads.”

“It’s amazing, because we’re always connected,” Vergara added. “Even though we haven’t seen each other in so long, it felt like we just left the set in 2020.”

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Modern Familycan be streamed on Peacock and Hulu.

source: people.com