Life After Cancellation? 9-1-1: Lone Star Boss Says ‘There’s So Many Stories Left to Tell’
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Soaps.com may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
9-1-1: Lone Star kicks off its final season after being officially canceled earlier this month. What can fans expect in Season 5 — and is a spinoff possible? The co-showrunner promised that fans will be happy with the way it wraps up and teased that there may be more stories to tell.
More from Soaps.com
Will There Be a 9-1-1: Lone Star Spinoff After Its Cancellation?
In a September 23 interview with TVLine, co-showrunner Rashad Raisani said he “knew it would be an uphill battle to get anything past Season 5 and that there was a good chance this could be it.”
Raisani added, “All those corporate factors at play — our distribution business and financiers and networks and all that stuff — was above our creative heads.”
With an end in sight, he said it allowed them to “just let it rip” for the characters and storylines of the remaining 12 episodes of the final season. Wrapping up stories in a way that satisfies fans who are devastated by a show’s cancellation is never an easy task, but Raisani said he feels like the final season will do a first-rate job.
“We give a beautiful send-off to each and every one of these characters, but we also leave the door open on stories, so it feels like there’s actually still more stuff to deeply explore,” Raisani said of the 9-1-1: Lone Star final season.
He added, “I love this show tremendously. I love working with these actors. I feel like we’ve just started to scratch the surface of what they’re all able to do and what we as a show are able to do.”
That definitely hints at a spinoff opportunity, something that fans have been hopeful for since the show’s cancellation was announced.
More: 9-1-1: Lone Star just paved the way for another original cast member’s exit
In an interview with TV Insider earlier this month, Raisani shared his hope that the show would have “a poetic ending and make people feel like it was incredibly satisfying,” saying it will end “very on brand.”
He explained, “It’s gonna have an apocalyptic ending in more ways than one. I’m immensely proud. I haven’t cut the last two episodes, so I haven’t seen how they fully work out, but I’m very confident that they will give you this feeling, I hope, that we are leaving all of these people right where they should be at the end of their journeys — for better, for worse.”
“I think people are gonna have a tremendous sense of both closure and longing to not want to leave them behind, that we’re leaving them just before we’re ready to say goodbye, which I hope is the mark of a show that’s ending at the right time,” Raisani shared. “It’s when you feel like it’s too soon, but yet you feel like, OK, that’s a beautiful last chapter for them if that has to be the last chapter.”
He also hinted that the characters could (possibly) live on after the series finale. “We didn’t want to close the book entirely,” he said.
When asked if the show could be saved or if a possible spinoff could come to light, he said, “Who knows?” Raisani pointed to shows that have survived, like S.W.A.T. and SEAL Team, which gives him hope. “So it has been done. So there’s still some hope some way,” he noted.
The co-showrunner is definitely open to the idea of a spinoff. “I do feel frankly like we’re leaving these people too early,” he said. “I still think there’s so many stories left to tell with these actors and these characters in our world. So I’m a realist in that I think it’s gonna be very challenging for us to keep going with our current environment. But I’m also an idealist in that if there was any hope I would jump to the door.”
9-1-1: Lone Star premieres September 23 on Fox and is available to stream on Hulu.
Watch ‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ on Hulu
For more on 9-1-1, check out cast’s salaries per episode — including which star makes the most — in the gallery below.
Solve the daily Crossword
