The Blacklist creator Jon Bokenkamp leaving after season 8 finale

We knew that The Blacklist star Megan Boone was going to be leaving the show after the events of the season 8. What we did not expect, however, was the show to lose its creator.

In a new post on Twitter, Jon Bokenkamp confirmed that he will be departing the NBC drama. The reasoning behind it is a desire to do other things, and it comes on the heels of a polarizing final episode that saw Elizabeth Keen killed off. The show moves on, but will it look or feel the same moving forward?

If you haven’t watched our thoughts on Jon’s The Blacklist exit yet, take a look at it in full below! Once you do check it out, be sure to SUBSCRIBE to Matt & Jess on YouTube! We’ll continue to have coverage of the show every Friday through the rest of the summer.

There are a lot of questions that come along with Bokenkamp’s exit, including whether or not this was long planned or what this means for the future of the series. John Eisendrath serves in the post of showrunner, so we now have to see if he will remain and guide the story moving forward. James Spader and the rest of the cast presumably are returning, and filming should kick off a little later in the summer.

So, in the end, color us shocked by this news. It’s hard to imagine what The Blacklist is without Jon’s vision behind the scenes — he worked to create a crime drama that looked and felt different from almost any other on TV. The music, the style, and even the characters gave the story often a very comic-book sort of feel, and we enjoyed the standalone episodes almost as much as the larger story arcs.

What do you think about Jon Bokenkamp leaving The Blacklist prior to the events of season 9?

Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, be sure to stick around to secure some other updates all about the series and the future. (Photo: NBC.)