David Boreanaz's Actions Led Bones Fans To Believe The Show Was Ending After Season 8
Technically, "Bones" ended in 2017 after 12 seasons. In practice, however, the Fox procedural has never really gone anywhere. Much of it is thanks to the deliberately open-ended ending that explains what happens to Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) and Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) but makes clear that both are still absolutely available for crime fighting in the future. There's also the matter of the oft-reported news about the show's potential return. In fact, a "Bones" revival seems more likely than ever right now, and Boreanaz even has the perfect pitch to bring the series back.
Against this backdrop, it seems strange that "Bones" ever ended in the first place. However, this may very well be a case of "you don't know what you have until it's gone," because when they were still making the series, the "Bones" cast and crew were talking about it ending years before the show actually aired its finale. Such rumors emerged in season 8 — and interestingly enough, Boreanaz himself was the culprit, thanks to a series of concerning tweets about "Bones" coming to an end.
Boreanaz started tweeting about Bones ending because his contract was up
In June 2012, David Boreanaz took to X, which was still known as Twitter at the time (via The Hollywood Reporter), to hype up the then-upcoming San Diego Comic-Con ... and to state in no uncertain terms that "Bones" was coming to an end:
"SDCC 2012 should be a blast and quite possibly the last for #Bones? Farewell tour? Look forward to seeing everyone there ... Let's put this in sports terms. I'm a free agent after this season. So, the 'Bones' farewell [sic]l tour is in full-swing."
"Bones" season 8 hadn't even started airing at that point, so it's easy to imagine the hordes of fans who were shocked to see the show's co-star suddenly firing off tweets about an impending end. Of course, things ultimately didn't play out that way, and the series still had five full years to go at the time of Boreanaz's tweets — but there was no way for fans to know that at the time.
Fortunately, the situation soon cleared up. "Bones" creator Hart Hanson was quick to tell Entertainment Weekly that he suspected Boreanaz was either acting in jest or playing the long game for a contract renegotiation. In a January 2013 interview with TV Line, the actor himself confirmed the latter to be the case:
"My contract was up [after Season 8], so I had opportunities to go into some new areas. But [the producers and I] came together and found a happy medium."
"Bones" is currently streaming in its entirety on Hulu.