'Superstore' Season 5 Finale Wasn't Completed Before Coronavirus Delay, America Ferrera's Farewell Up In The Air
Back at the beginning of March, which feels like years ago, actress America Ferrera announced she was leaving the NBC comedy series Superstore after five seasons. However, it sounds like the planned departure of her character Amy might have to wait until later. That's because, like all of the shows shooting on the Universal Studios backlot, production on Superstore has been suspended due to coronavirus concerns, meaning the season finale never got a chance to shoot.
TV Line has word that the Superstore season 5 finale was not shot before production was shut down on the series. America Ferrera announced her last day of shooting was on Friday in an Instagram story. Since it's unlikely that production will resume in time to get the season finale done, the second to last episode of the season will function as the show's season finale.
So what happens to the departure of America Ferrera's character Amy? The actress mentioned in her Instagram story (which is no longer available) that she assumed production would be able to resume after all of the coronavirus concerns had subsided. But with an NBC spokesperson confirming that the finale will not be able to end the season, that means Amy won't be leaving just yet. Will the crew film the episode over the summer and use it to kick off the sixth season of the series? We're not sure if contracts will allow that to happen easily, but it seems like the most logical way to fix the situation.
As of now it's not clear how the 21st episode of Superstore will end the fifth season. Will it be an awkward way to end the season? We imagine a lot of shows will have to deal with this problem now that production has been shut down on virtually every show that was actively shooting and still had episodes to complete. But hopefully Superstore has some kind of way to wrap things up temporarily but still allow for America Ferrera to have a proper departure in the future.
This scenario is one that Hollywood has faced before due to union strikes by the Writer's Guild of America, but at least that was something that the studios could somewhat be prepared for. The current situation is unprecedented, and it's not clear how soon production will be able to resume on all the suspended shows. Hollywood will have a lot to sort through once this crisis has run its course, and we just hope they'll be able to recover as smoothly as possible.