Shameless season 10: Show boss on potential final season

Is Shameless season 10 going to be its final season on Showtime? You better get prepared early for about a billion different stories to come out on this subject. It’s going to happen, and it’s probably going to happen often over the next few months. Ten is a nice, round number, you’ve already lost one major cast member (there’s always going to be a fear of losing another), and there will be all of the “the show’s gotta end eventually” talk.

We’re at the point where there’s a cognizance that the final season is coming soon, but also no guarantee that this will be it. It could be coming later this year, or they may be able to feature more Gallagher family hijinks for a year or two still. The cast clearly enjoys working together, so it’s likely going to come down whether or not the show really feels like it’s just spinning its wheels and doing the same stuff that it’s already done before or if there are still stories to tell. It’s going to get harder to avoid that with the kids becoming adults since you can’t just rely on them growing up as a story focus anymore. It’s more about relationships, jobs, careers, staying out of prison (i.e. not being Ian), and more.

Speaking on the subject of the end to Entertainment Weekly, executive producer John Wells presented his version of “the show’s gotta end eventually” — as you would expect, it’s far more eloquent than that:

I can write the show forever, because it’s great therapy. I can’t wait to get back into the room and tell everyone stories about my family members who have informed various stories on the show. So that part we could do forever, but the actors have to want to keep doing it, and the network has to keep wanting it. You never know, so we always keep in our back pocket roughly where we’d like some of the show to end, although, because we thought it was going to end after like six years, we’ve had to keep adjusting it. But it’s a very loose idea, and we’ll just see what the network’s feeling, how the actors are feeling, and how we’re feeling about it at the end.

If season 10 does end up being the final season, expect a formal announcement before it premieres (hopefully) later this year. For some more insight on what you can expect, we suggest checking out our video from last night below! Subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube so you don’t miss any other updates and take a look at our Shameless playlist.

One other interesting factoid

One other thing that Wells explains in this interview is that originally, this season was going to end with Fiona attending an AA meeting, while season 10 would focus more on her recovery from rock bottom. That plan changed and the meeting was moved up when they determined that Emmy Rossum would be leaving at the end of the season. It’s also not intended to be some enormous mystery where Fiona is going — that’s something that will likely be addressed in season 10. (Originally, it was going to be a larger part of the finale, but it didn’t make it past some of the cuts.) If Fiona does end up going Hawaii (as has been speculated) you could easily do a spin-off show entitled “how Fiona affords Hawaii.” That money she has isn’t going to last all that long there!

The Shameless writers room will be opening soon and work will begin on making the next set of adventures truly worthwhile ones. You can read some thoughts we’ve got on the recent finale over at the link here.

Do you think that season 10 could be the final season for Shameless?

Be sure to share now in the comments! (Photo: Showtime.)