This Is Us‘ upcoming series finale will sound the death knell for any potential Pearson spinoffs, according to series creator Dan Fogelman.
In an interview with TVLine’s sister pub Variety, the EP confirms that 20th Television — the studio behind the soon-to-conclude NBC smash — has indeed approached him about keeping the Emmy-winning franchise afloat via an offshoot. But Fogelman cites a major stumbling block standing in the way of any possible spinoff: the show’s sixth and final season.
“Once you’ve seen the completion of Season 6, the stories of these characters are told,” he tells the trade. “So there is no real spinoff because [viewers will] kind of know everything. Is there another play for the show? I guess you’d never say never, but I don’t see it.
“It’s personal to me,” Fogelman adds, “and I don’t see myself picking this thing back up.”
A rep for 20th Television declined to comment.
Last TV season, This Is Us was TV’s highest-rated entertainment program, and among NBC’s scripted series trailed only the #OneChicago trifecta in total viewership.
Fogelman previously assured fans that the final 18 episodes (the first of which aired on Tuesday; read Kim Roots’ recap here) will contain copious closure. “All the questions that you’re asking about Kate, and who’s Nicky [with in the flash forwards], and how does this end…. We’ve had it very carefully mapped out,” he asserted over the summer to Deadline. “So, love it or hate it, we get to go out the way we’ve always planned on going out and executing the plan. I feel very confident in it.”
