Orange is the New Black‘s sixth season is less than three months old, but fans today learned that the forthcoming seventh stretch in the pokey will be the show’s last.
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The announcement came via Twitter, in a video message from members of the cast and crew, thanking the fans for their years of support.
Orange is the New Black is one of Netflix’s longest-running and most-awarded series. Another of its earliest hits, House of Cards, will also end after its next season.
Warning: This may make you cry. The Final Season, 2019. #OITNB pic.twitter.com/bUp2yY0aoK
— Orange Is the New… (@OITNB) October 17, 2018
The sixth season was better received than its fifth, vaulting the cult classic back to the top of the must-watch pile after a season five that somewhat underwhelmed a majority of fans.
Showrunner Jenji Kohan described the prison riot plot as “fan fiction,” and co-producer Tara Herrmann attributed the mixed reaction to a writer’s room shakeup.
“We had lost a bunch of the original writers,” Herrmann told The New Yorker. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was just a new dynamic — people were attached to the characters as viewers, not as creators.”
However, Manning has gone on record with Digital Spy saying that she thought the unorthodox season was among the series’ best.
“That wasn’t the way the public invested in it, they really enjoyed it,” Manning said. “I actually think it was one of our strongest seasons. It’s interesting, I’m not a TV writer, (but) maybe from (Jenji’s) perspective there were parts she thought would fail because the writers got switched up… But I think it’s one of our best.”
Last summer in a TV Time clip exclusively released by PopCulture.com, series star Lori Petty divulged how exactly she landed her gig as Lolly.
“I was in New York City, it was season 2, and I had just seen this show on my cell phone, and went, ‘Why am I not on this TV show? I’m confused right now,’” Petty said.
From there, she immediately found the casting director’s number, cold-called her and set up a meeting as soon as possible in New York City. One thing led to another and Petty’s beloved portrayal of Lolly was the result.
All episodes of Orange Is the New Black are currently streaming on Netflix.
