Melissa Gilbert Gives Her Blessing to the New Laura Ingalls Ahead of the Netflix Premiere

With Netflix’s new Little House on the Prairie set to premiere Thursday, the show is already getting a public nod from the actress most associated with the role at its center. Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls on NBC’s original series from 1974 to 1983 and returned for three follow up television movies, paid a visit to the new production’s set, and her reaction to meeting 11 year old Alice Halsey, the actress now carrying the part, has become part of the story ahead of launch.

Halsey has been careful throughout press for the show to note that Netflix’s version is not a reboot of the 1970s series. It is a more direct adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s own books, with each season built around a different installment rather than retelling the NBC show’s episodes. That framing matters, because it means Halsey was never trying to recreate Gilbert’s performance in the first place. Even so, when the two actresses finally met in person for the first time, Halsey said the connection was immediate. She has described running to Gilbert and hugging her the moment they met, and called her supportive in a way that made her feel welcomed into the wider Little House world despite the two having no prior relationship.

Taking on a character as recognizable as Laura Ingalls clearly weighed on Halsey during production. She has spoken about feeling a real sense of responsibility, both to the character herself and to showrunner Rebecca Sonnenshine, to portray Laura honestly rather than lean on the shorthand audiences already associate with the role. Her preparation reflected that approach. Rather than starting from the NBC series, Halsey said she leaned on Wilder’s original books and the scripts to build her own understanding of who Laura is, saving the original show for after season one had already wrapped. She has said she enjoyed what she watched once she got to it, but by then her performance was already locked in, built from the source material rather than from Gilbert’s version of the character.

The rest of the ensemble includes Luke Bracey as Pa Charles, Crosby Fitzgerald as Ma Caroline, and Skywalker Hughes as older sister Mary, along with Warren Christie, Jocko Sims, Barrett Doss, Meegwun Fairbrother, Alyssa Wapanatâhk, and Wren Zhawenim Gotts in supporting roles. Season one follows the Ingalls family as they establish their homestead near the growing community of Independence, Kansas. Halsey has framed the show as a story about growth, hope, family, and community, one built to stand alongside the books and the original series rather than replace either, a goal that Gilbert’s warm reaction to the new cast seems to support.

Little House on the Prairie season one premieres Thursday, July 9, on Netflix.

This story is based on an exclusive interview conducted by PEOPLE. Read the original feature here.