The Blacklist has been handed an early renewal. NBC has picked up the crime drama for Season 10 while Season 9 is still on the air. Star/executive producer James Spader is set to return for the 10th season, which will be the second following the departure of both its female lead Megan Boone, who exited at the end of Season 8, and its creator Jon Bokenkamp. Also back for Season 10 as executive producer/showrunner is John Eisendrath, who has been on the series from the start, co-showrunning with Bokenkamp for the first eight seasons and serving as sole showrunner since the start of Season 9. Spader announced the renewal during a visit to The Tonight Show to promote The Blacklist‘s return to its more regular Friday night slot. (You can watch the interview below.) The first nine episodes of this season aired on Thursday nights as a result of the Law & Order spinoff Law & Order: For the Defense falling through. The Blacklist has been a solid performer for the network, which said that it had reached 22 million viewers across linear and digital platforms this season. In the two years following the death of Boone’s Elizabeth Keen, Spader’s Raymond Reddington and the members of the FBI Task Force have disbanded – their lives now changed in unexpected ways and with Reddington’s whereabouts unknown. Finding themselves each at a crossroads, a common purpose compels them to renew their original mission: to take down dangerous, vicious and eccentric Blacklisters. In the process, they begin to uncover lethal adversaries, unimaginable conspiracies and surprising betrayals that will threaten alliances and spur vengeance for the past, led by the most devious criminal of them all: Raymond Reddington. Diego Klattenhoff, Amir Arison, Hisham Tawfiq, Laura Sohn and Harry Lennix also star. The Blacklist is produced by Davis Entertainment in association with Sony Pictures Television Studios and Universal Television. Eisendrath, Bokenkamp, John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment, Spader, Lukas Reiter, Laura A. Benson, Daniel Cerone, Sean Hennen, Allison Glock-Cooper and T Cooper are executive producers.
EXCLUSIVE: The Blacklist is headed for a shocker. Megan Boone, the female lead opposite James Spader, is departing the long-running NBC series after eight seasons, I have learned. She will make her last appearance as a series regular in the upcoming Season 8 finale.
Your Complete Guide to Pilots and Straight-to-Series orders The decision about Boone’s exit was made early on, well ahead of The Blacklist‘s Season 9 renewal in January. That allowed the writers to craft the arc for her character, Elizabeth “Liz”” Keen, this season as her final chapter. I hear the decision was mutual, and Boone already is plotting her next move. Reps for NBC and Sony Pictures TV, which produces The Blacklist with Universal TV, had no comment. With Boone’s departure, Spader, Diego Klattenhoff and Harry Lennix remain the only original cast members on the show.  Season 8 has completed Liz’s transformation from a wide-eyed rookie FBI agent to a criminal on the run who has embraced her dark side. In Episode 4, Liz was revealed to be No. 1 on the Blacklist. After watching Raymond “Red” Reddington (Spader) kill her mother, Katarina, Liz turned the tables on her former mentor who now became her target. Their tumultuous relationship will come to a head in the final two episodes of Season 8, aptly titled “Nachalo” and “Konets,” Russian for “Beginning” (Начало) and “End” (Конец). In a recent interview with TVInsider, The Blacklist creator Jon Bokenkamp teased that in “Nachalo,” “we’re going to go back to the very beginning and unpack answers to eight years worth of questions.” In the dramatic NBC promo, Spader’s Red says, “There is only you, me and the truth,” and Boone’s Liz is heard asking, “Tell me, who are you?” (which has been one of The Blacklist‘s biggest mysteries, especially after the bombshell several seasons ago that he is not the real Red Reddington.) At the end of the most recent episode, Red revealed to Liz that he’s N-13, the elusive spy she’s been hunting for. The series will now finally explain why Red entered Liz’s life eight years ago. As part of the Liz-as-a-fugitive storyline (and in part due to personal reasons), Boone did not appear in eight episodes this season, raising questions about her future on the show. Boone returned in the April 23 episode as Liz emerged from hiding. The Blacklist was a career-defining moment for Boone. The young actress had done one show as a series regular, NBC’s short-lived Law & Order: LA, when she was cast as the female lead opposite three-time Emmy winner Spader in the pilot. (Boone was actually cast first, with NBC going down to the wire on the role of Red, ultimately getting Spader for it.) The character-driven procedural was an instant, massive hit, turning Boone into a TV star overnight. Despite losing some ratings steam as it was moved around the NBC schedule, The Blacklist has remains a solid performer, and through its off-network deal with Netflix, the show has reached a global audience. Here is a gallery of Boone as Liz Keen through her eight seasons on The Blacklist. |
