The pandemic may have thrown off “Happiest Season’s” original release plans, but it’s a major success story nonetheless. Clea DuVall’s LGBTQ+ holiday rom-com, from Sony’s Tri-Star Pictures and eOne, “was always poised to make history, as the first holiday romantic comedy about a same-sex couple from a major Hollywood studio,” per Variety, and it did, even after its COVID-related move to Hulu. The source reports that “Happiest Season” broke Hulu records: “Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, the movie had the best viewership for any original film on the service in its opening weekend, and attracted more new subscribers than any other previous feature title.”

Hulu also revealed that “Happiest Season” has become its “most-talked about original film ever on Twitter” as well as “the most-tweeted about movie during the holiday weekend, trending three times.”

Starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, “Happiest Season” sees a lesbian couple’s relationship threatened during a family Christmas celebration. When her girlfriend invites her home for the holidays, Abby (Stewart) plans to propose. That changes when she discovers Harper (Davis) has not only not told her family about Abby, she hasn’t yet come out to them. DuVall wrote the script with Mary Holland, who portrays Harper’s sister Jane. Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Steenburgen, Victor Garber, and Dan Levy also star.

Speaking to Variety about the buzz “Happiest Season” has generated, DuVall said she would “love to do a sequel.” “I have a couple of ideas,” she added. “We all had such a great time making the movie that we were talking about it then. But it was also just like, who knew if anybody would care about the movie or not? So I definitely am more than open to it.”

DuVall also addressed the immense pressure “Happiest Season” is under, has been under since it was first announced. It’s a milestone movie and it’s an argument for the need for better LGBTQ+ representation and it’s a piece of feel-good holiday entertainment. “I think it’s a privilege [to be in this position],” the multi-hyphenate said. “And yes, I know being the first comes with a lot of expectations. But I also felt like it’s so long overdue for a movie like this to be made on this scale, you know?” she explained. “All I really was hoping for is that it would give studios or streamers the impression that movies like this have an audience, and that people want to see them. I just wanted to do a good enough job that I would get to make more on a larger scale. That LGBTQ stories would be — you know, that there would be more of them!”

DuVall previously directed the feature “The Intervention” and an episode of “Looking for Alaska.” Also a prolific actress, some of her best-known credits include the queer classic “But I’m a Cheerleader,” “Veep,” and “American Horror Story.”