'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Ending With Upcoming Season 8, Which Will Debut Later Than Expected
Brooklyn Nine-Nine is coming to an end.
The Andy Samberg-led show will wrap up in the forthcoming eighth season. And in a double-whammy of sad news for fans of the show, the eighth and final season was supposed to premiere during the 2020-2021 TV season, but has now been delayed until the 2021-2022 season.
The beloved comedy series, which was canceled by Fox and saved by NBC, was one of the dozens of productions forced to shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic last year. But the show was also deeply impacted by the country's heightened awareness of police brutality and calls for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police, inspiring co-creator Dan Goor to throw out four completed episodes and address the topic of police brutality head-on in the new season.
As someone who absolutely adores this show, I'll admit it seems like the right time to wrap it up. The series has remained top notch all the way through its run, and I suspect there will be some significant changes in tone in the new season that might not allow it to be sustainable for much longer anyway. My wife just predicted that the series will end with Peralta, Holt, Diaz, Jeffords, Boyle, and the rest of the gang leaving their jobs as NYPD officers and all getting hired to work at another job together, and I would love to see that happen. Or, as our own Chris Evangelista jokingly suggested, maybe they could all die and wake up in The Good Place for the ultimate crossover event.
"I'm so thankful to NBC and Universal Television for allowing us to give these characters and our fans the ending they deserve," Goor said in a statement. "When [co-creator] Mike Schur and I first pitched the pilot episode to Andy, he said, 'I'm in, but I think the only way to tell this story is over exactly 153 episodes,' which was crazy because that was exactly the number Mike and I had envisioned.
"I feel incredibly lucky to have worked with this amazing cast and crew for eight seasons," he continued. "They are not only among the most talented people in the business, they are all good human beings who have become a family. But most of all, I feel lucky that we have had the best fans in the world. Fans who literally saved us from cancellation. Fans who fill us with joy. Ending the show was a difficult decision, but ultimately, we felt it was the best way to honor the characters, the story and our viewers. I know some people will be disappointed it's ending so soon, but honestly, I'm grateful it lasted this long. Title of my sex tape."