Will & Grace reunion: How they kept it secret - and what chance of a new season?

'From moment one [of the reunion], there was a tremendous happiness — but also a real sadness,' said Eric McCormack

Perhaps the most surprising facet of the first presidential debate was, of all things, a secret reunion by the cast of Will & Grace.

The show's stars returned 10 years after its finale for a minisode in support of Hillary Clinton, which sees Grace (Debra Messing) and Will (Eric McCormack) fighting off Trump supporter Karen (Megan Mullally) in convincing the undecided Jack (Sean Hayes) to vote for Clinton; though, in typical Jack-style, the argument all eventually comes down to where Katy Perry is sticking her vote.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Messing and McCormack revealed the idea for the clip came from the show's creator Max Mutchnik, prompted by the very practical need to move the show's original sets from Emerson College, where they've been quietly housed since the show's last days.

The pair also revealed the intense secrecy of the project, which is impressive considering any classic TV reunion is the kind of thing that's near impossible to keep on the lowdown.

"It was shot on the same lot we always shot on, but we had to be really secretive," McCormack explained. "Max wanted this to have a pop and not be leaked in any way. The script was called Hot Food and all communication about it was labeled that. The set was set up in the basement underneath stages 21 and 22 at CBS Radford Studios [in Studio City, Calif.] We had an audience of 100 and a lot of them had no idea what they were about to see."

Inevitably, the reunion's sparked some major rumours about the possibility of a new series for the show, but the cast are reluctant to add any fuel to the fire in that respect.

"There is no official talk," McCormack stated. "A lot of that started the past 36 hours on the internet, which can create its own crazy expectations. We had a great time. It's a never say never type of situation. But at this point, there is no talk."

"My response, which I've learned in the last five years, is I never say never anymore," Messing added. "Everything has changed so much in the TV industry; there have been reboots. Now there are platforms where you can do six or 10 episodes. I don't believe we would ever come back to network [TV] again.

"I think that the logistics of all of our lives, there would just be way too many things to hammer out. But for something shorter-lived and maybe having the limitations of being on network TV lifted may give us a fun, fresh opportunity because we could be really, really naughty!"

Certainly, the sketch has been treated by its cast and crew as a one-off experience. "From moment one [of the reunion], there was a tremendous happiness — but also a real sadness — because we knew it was brief," McCormack eplained. "It was going to be 24.5 hours and then we were going to be done. It wasn't just the four of us either; we had a lot of our original writers and producers and crew there. There was a sense of, 'This is incredible and it's all going to be over way too soon.'"

"It was a love fest," Messing added. "We've kept in touch over the years but the four of us have not been in same room in 10 years. It was very emotional. The four of us were having this group hug and marveling at one another and the fact that we were all together and what we were about to do."