This is per an interview Gunn gave to People this week, in which he talked about feeling “initially devastated, then kind of humiliated” when he found out that producers of the new version of the show explicitly didn’t want him back in any major capacity. He’d apparently been texting with Klum about the potential revival for months, and when she asked him what he thought about the contract she’d assumed they were both being offered, he had to admit to her that he hadn’t been given any offer at all:
So I called my agent and he knew things were going on, but he contacted the executive producers of this new show, and they said, ‘We don’t want him.’ And [my agent] said, ‘Well, he’s done 19 seasons of Runway, 16 with Heidi. The two of them won an Emmy together as hosts, and now you’re going to separate them?’ And they said yes.
Gunn says it actually got a bit worse, noting that, eventually, producers came back to his agent and said “‘Well, we’ve thought about it and we’d be willing to offer Tim a small cameo in one episode.’ What do I do? Wave from a bus? As the designers are going into Mood [Fabrics]? Heidi comes to see me at the retirement home and we play croquet? So no thank you. And as Heidi would say, you’re either in or you’re out. And I’m out. So I wasn’t asked to join.”
Gunn says he’s now adjusted to the news, though. “I thought, how lucky am I to have had the experiences that I’ve had over the last 20 years? This is phenomenal. I stopped the boo-hooing. I thought, it’s really throwing hubris in the face of an angry God to mourn not being on this new show. So I’ve come to terms with it. Am I disappointed? Sure. And most of all, it’s about not working with Heidi, but we move on and things happen for a reason. I don’t know what the reason is yet, but it will be revealed.” (Gunn also notes that Klum fought hard to try to get the producers to reconsider the decision, and that he intends to watch the series, saying of his former co-star, “I have her back and I’m with her in spirit always.”)
