‘How I Met Your Mother’ season 8 spoilers: A new approach for season 9

Are we going to be seeing something completely different for “How I Met Your Mother” season 9? Based on what we’re seeing now, it certainly sounds like it as the show prepares to enter what is going to be a very different world.

Speaking in a new interview with TV Guide, executive producer Carter Bays makes some surprising comments in suggesting in some ways that we are not actually going to seeing the wedding between Barney and Robin actually happen this season. The final episode is going to focus mostly on the path to get the characters there to this big moment, just as the episodes beforehand chronicle such events as the bachelor party. We’ll see Marshall take Marvin to Minnesota for the first time, Lily get a new job offer, and Ted make some pretty big decisions.

How big are we talking about? One choice our narrator makes, per Bays, “will end the series as we know it … We’re going to be taking some surprising risks with time. The finale is almost like a pilot for the new series that the ninth [and final] season becomes.” This idea is both exciting and scary at the same time, mostly because we don’t want to see the show become like “Scrubs,” and have a final season that is really just stuck onto the end despite not really needing to be there. Our real guess is just that they are going to play with the timeline a little bit differently, just to set the stage for what will be the most-hyped reveal in the recent history of sitcoms.

Overall, what do you want to see happen on the final “How I Met Your Mother” season? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and you can also check out the first look at Monday night’s new episode for the comedy by heading on over to the link here.

Photo: CBS