It’s officially the end of an era for Freeform’s grown-ish, as six original cast members are departing the series. According to a recent report from TVLine, Emily Arlook (Nomi), Chloe Bailey (Jazz), Halle Bailey (Sky), Jordan Buhat (Vivek), Francia Raisa (Ana), and Luka Sabbat (Luca) will not be returning for the upcoming fifth season of the beloved black-ish spinoff. This news arrives in the wake of grown-ish‘s Season 4 finale, which was themed around the Cal-U graduation ceremony of its main cast members. According to a statement from the series’ showrunners, the door is being left open for Arlook, Bailey, Bailey, Buhat, Raisa, and Sabbat to return at any point.
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“Francia, Emily, Chloe, Halle, Luka and Jordan will always be a part of the -ish‘ family. This new season isn’t a goodbye, we are just expanding the world; there will always be an open door for them to return,” showrunners Zakiyyah Alexander and Courtney Lilly said in a statement. “For Season 5, we’re excited to dive deeper into the storylines of Zoey, Aaron and Doug in their post-grad adventures and welcome a new dynamic class to Cal-U, including Junior.”
Season 5 is expected to feature a revamped direction for grown-ish, after Zoey (Yara Shahidi) and Aaron (Trevor Jackson) have relocated to New York in the Season 4 finale. Both Shahidi and Jackson are confirmed to return in Season 5, as well as Diggy Simmons as Doug, so fans will have to wait and see exactly what that narrative entails. There’s also the previously-reported detail that Marcus Scribner, who portrayed Junior Johnson alongside Shahidi on black-ish, will be appearing in Season 5 and embarking “on his own journey of being ‘grown.’” This is all head of black-ish‘s season finale, which is set to air later this year.
“It’s just a very different approach for Junior, who has always been a very happy go lucky, sort of naive individual. “I think this is definitely going to grow him up,” Scribner explained in a recent interview with Ebony. “I feel like in this new series he really gets to stretch his legs. And we get to see him as a real human being instead of just the brother who hits with the jokes. We are fleshing out his identity, which I’m really excited about. We’ve got a very different take on his journey, but still maintaining those lovable aspects about the character. So flipping the whole thing on its head is really exciting for me.”
