"The Fosters" Will End after Season 5, Maia Mitchell & Cierra Ramirez Get Spin-off

[JamesG]

"The Fosters" To End Run with 3-Episode Finale As Freeform Orders Spin-off Series Starring Maia Mitchell & Cierra Ramirez
by Nellie Andreeva
January 3, 2018


Freeform’s celebrated family drama series "The Fosters" will be ending its run after five seasons but not before a final three-episode installment, which will introduce a spin-off series.

The network has greenlighted a three-part finale event to air next summer, while also giving a 13-episode series order to an offshoot starring the series’ Cierra Ramirez and Maia Mitchell.

Set several years in the future, it will follow the lives of their characters, Callie (Mitchell) and Mariana (Ramirez), as they embark on the next phase of their young adult lives. I hear the two may be joined by at least one more young "Fosters" cast member, with conversations currently underway.





The news comes as "The Fosters" recently wrapped production on its fifth season, culminating with the show’s two-hour 100th episode, which will serve as a Season 5 finale, setting up the three-part limited series summer event.

The ten-episode Season 5B debuts January 9th.





In the yet-untitled spin-off series, currently in early stages of development, Callie and Mariana move out and move to a new city, Los Angeles. While living together, they take two very different paths and explore the different sides of the city — Mariana will be involved in the tech world, possibly in Silicon Beach, while Callie will continue the kind of social work she’s done.

“Both of them will be faced with the challenges of working in a cultural divide all the while pursuing their dreams that have been laid into those characters throughout The Fosters,” said Freeform’s EVP programming and development Karey Burke.





She said the idea for a spin-off series came from "The Fosters’" three writing executive producers, creators Peter Paige and Bradley Bredeweg as well as Joanna Johnson, who are shepherding the project. The trio felt it was time to grow the younger characters up and pitched the idea how to do that. The network brass mulled it over and decided to go with the plan.

“It’s really about expanding the universe and continuing the legacy of The Fosters but in a different venue,” Burke said.





By aging up the younger characters, "The Fosters" is taking a page out of the playbook of Freeform’s biggest series, "Pretty Little Liars", which also implemented a five-year time jump. While on that show, the characters stayed in the same town, “we felt like taking a bolder step with The Fosters and let the characters choose a new path,” Burke said.

While the new series will be moving in a new direction, it will still keep ties to the mothership show. “We plan to have all characters from the original series make guest appearances,” Burke said. That includes the parents on the original series, played by Teri Polo and Sherri Saum.





“The Fosters has been consistently groundbreaking and award-winning, it very much has helped define a brand that we want to continue and advance in platforming stories and characters that feel authentic and relevant to our audiences,” said Burke who admitted that watching the show as a fan with her family and admiring how it was breaking boundaries and taking on difficult topics in a thoughtful and heartfelt way was one of the reasons she wanted to go work at Freeform.

“The show has never strayed from controversy, it’s never strayed from important social topics. It helped first ABC Family and now Freeform not just be a part of this national conversation but lead it. It’s really been an important bedrock for this channel, and the future path that we’re taking on today with shows like The Bold Type and grown-ish, which premieres tonight. We’re extremely proud of it and hope to continue its relevance with the new series.”

She noted that shows, particularly family shows, have a life cycle, and, driven by the creators, the decision to end the original series and launch a spin-off “is a way to continue that story and the legacy of these characters.”





“First and foremost, we want to thank our fans – our supportive ‘Fosters Family’ – and Freeform for fostering this show,” executive producers Paige, Bredeweg and Johnson said.

“It’s been the privilege of our lives to get to shepherd this beautiful family through five seasons of love, laughter, heartbreak, tribulation, and triumph – and message to the world that DNA doesn’t make a family, love does. All while allowing us to explore some of the most pressing social issues of our era. Now that the kids are growing up, it’s time to take them out into the world, to see them make their way into adulthood, continuing their search for identity and love, and the pursuit of their dreams and purpose in this ever changing world.”

http://deadline.com/2018/01/the-fost...ez-1202210401/

[JamesG]

"The Fosters" Stars Talk "Sad" Cancellation, Callie and Mariana's "Exciting" Spin-off
by Vlada Gelman
January 22, 2018


"The Fosters" stars Maia Mitchell and Cierra Ramirez went through the same roller coaster of emotions as viewers when they learned that the Freeform drama would come to an end this summer, and then — surprise! — be followed by a Callie and Mariana-centric spin-off.

“We found out a couple minutes before the press release came out, and it was surprisingly emotional and sad, and then exciting and also devastating,” Mitchell told TVLine when we caught up with the show’s cast at the first-ever Freeform Summit last week.

Ramirez, meanwhile, described the double-whammy of news as a “whirlwind.”





The upcoming offshoot is set in the future, as Callie and Mariana begin their lives as young adults in Los Angeles. The girls’ next chapter will be introduced with a three-episode finale event this summer, which will be “different than anything we’ve ever done” on the show, Ramirez previews.

Below, the actresses and their "Fosters" co-star Hayden Byerly reflect on who else might pop up in L.A. and the joys of jumping forward in time.









Congrats on getting your own spin-off! What was your reaction when you found out?


CIERRA RAMIREZ: It’s very exciting. I think we were all just as shocked as everyone [else].


MAIA MITCHELL: We found out the show was ending, and they were like, “Do you want to keep the story alive?” We were like, “Yeah, in whatever way we can. Let’s figure it out.”

They came up with a way for us to do that. There are going to be appearances from all your "Fosters" favorites, so it’s not just going to be our show. There are going to be new series regulars and new characters, and still the same amount of representation as we’ve had on "The Fosters", and the same topics. It’s the same but different.









What do the three episodes airing in the summer look like?


RAMIREZ: You are going to see all of us, but it’s different than anything we’ve ever done.


MITCHELL: It’s different than anything you expect. It’ll be different and fun and finish the show off in —


RAMIREZ: You’ll find a lot of closure.









What are you looking forward to exploring about your characters in the future? You’re playing young women now…


MITCHELL: I think the mistakes that our characters make are going to be different. They’re going to be skewed older, I think.

Cierra was just saying how our characters are doing something, and we’re like, “Why would they do that?” And then you have to remember, “Oh, they’re 17 and 16.” Now we won’t have those excuses.


RAMIREZ: But I’m sure we’re going to find some down the road. It’s messy growing up. I have so many issues, so I can only imagine what Mariana and Callie will have. [Laughs]









Will Jude pack his bags and come visit the girls in L.A.?


HAYDEN BYERLY: I would imagine so. It’s the two girls on their own. But the great thing is, throughout your life, you do still have your family, whether they’re a voice in the back of your head… It’s someone that’s always influential in your life, always kind of there when you need them to be.

Everyone on the show, the "Fosters" family, is super excited and super stoked for the new beginnings and the new happenings that are going to continue on. Because while it’s the end of the Fosters family, this is the new beginning of "The Fosters". This is just a little segment of that, and it’s incredible, and we’re all really excited for it.

http://tvline.com/2018/01/22/the-fos...ierra-ramirez/