After almost six years, This Is Us is now on its final season, and fans aren't ready to say goodbye just yet. Even the show's star Milo Ventimiglia isn't ready to let go of the NBC series. But all good things must come to an end. Show creator Dan Fogelman also had the show all perfectly wrapped up. Then the cast have been hinting an emotional ending, true to the series' branding. But did Fogelman actually plan the show to last six seasons or was it all the network's decision? Here's everything you need to know about the making of This Is Us.
The Fascinating Story Behind How 'This Is Us' Came To Be
This Is Us was initially a feature script about sextuplets called 36. "A few years back I was considering it as a next feature," Fogelman said of the original script in an interview with Deadline. "I actually wrote about 75 pages. Initially it had about 7 characters all sharing the same birthday, and the reveal at the end of the film was going to be that the Jack and Rebecca characters were giving birth to sextuplets 36 years earlier. Kind of a Sixth Sense-type ending with babies." That would have been an interesting twist.
When asked about his inspirations for the story, Fogelman said he didn't really have any. "There wasn't really a ton of inspiration. I wanted to sit down and write something about people; people I knew," he shared. "I was in my late 30s at the time—about 38—and I was struck by how wildly different the lives of my peers could be, even though we were all the same age. I had friends who were married, some single. Some had preteen children, others none. Some were satisfied in their careers, others less so. Some had experienced great loss—of parents, of friends—others hadn’t even lost a grandparent."
He added that once he had the realization, the writing process just flowed naturally. "And I thought, I'm going to write something about all these people," he continued. "All exactly the same age and born on the same day. Halfway through I thought, Huh, maybe one story is the parents of all the others. Then I just sat down and wrote." The show creator had to stick to reduce The Big Six into The Big Three after the series went to broadcast instead of cable or streaming.
Did 'This Is Us' Creator Know They'd End At Season 6?
In an interview with Good Housekeeping, This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown — who plays Randall Pearson — revealed that Fogelman had a six-season story for the show right from the start. "I think the fact that we knew, and he [Fogelman] knew that he had six seasons of a story that he wanted to tell from the beginning, gives us the opportunity for something that doesn’t happen a lot on network television — and that is a real sense of closure," the actor said of the show's near end. "We have been building towards something from the beginning, and now we have a chance to finish off the artistic vision that Fogelman had."
However, it wasn't until August 2021 that Fogelman finished the script for season 6. He admitted that he got emotional during the process. "I just finished writing the season premiere, and it’s the second time I've cried writing the show," he told Deadline. "I was like, 'Oh God, what’s happening?' The first time was when William died. That made me cry." He added that it also got the studio executives crying during his pitch via Zoom.
"People were crying to the point that I wasn't sure if I should keep going or not," he shared. "Cameras were shutting off, and I thought I'd lost people." Brown then joked that Fogelman takes pleasure in making people cry. "He does this with glee," the actor quipped. "He always says, 'I'm about to kill America.'" And that he does with the numerous tearjerkers in the series.
Will There Be A 'This Is Us' Spinoff?
Fogelman recently told Variety that "there is no spinoff" for the series due to how he's written season 6. "Once you've seen the completion of season 6, the stories of these characters are told," he explained. "So there is no real spin-off because you 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, and I don't see myself picking this thing back up." Kudos to him for sealing the show in excellent condition.
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