All good things must come to an end at some point, and no TV show can last forever despite what The Simpsons and Law and Order: SVU would have us believe. Sadly, one beloved cable show has gotten the axe. Freeform has cancelled The Fosters, which is currently halfway through its fifth season on the airwaves. That said, it's not all bad news on the Fosters front. The show will get a special three-part finale later this year as well as a spinoff series.
The second half of The Fosters Season 5 hasn't actually kicked off just yet, and there are still ten episodes left from the initial season order. Freeform announced that the show will get a a three-night limited series finale in the summer that will tie up the loose ends from The Fosters and lead into a new spinoff series. The spinoff will follow Callie and Mariana as they move into adulthood.
The spinoff is still in the early stages of development, but Deadline reports that Callie and Mariana will move to Los Angeles to start new lives in a new place. Although they'll live together, they'll explore different paths and diverge from each other in some notable ways. Callie will continue to pursue social work as she has done on The Fosters, while Mariana will be involved in technology. Freeform evidently has a great deal of faith in the as-yet-untitled series, as the network already ordered a 13-episode full season. The action will be set several years in the future from the events of The Fosters, so the two young women will be in different places in their lives.
It should be interesting to see what happens for Callie, Mariana, and the rest of the family in the remaining episodes of The Fosters. A lot can still happen before the story comes to an end in the three-part finale. The second half of Season 5 will allow The Fosters to hit the 100 episode milestone with its season finale, which will be a two-hour event.
A big question is what will happen to the characters other than Callie and Mariana. The idea for their spinoff was formulated by Fosters executive producers Peter Paige, Bradley Bredeweg, and Joanna Johnson. The three came to the conclusion that the time had come for the younger members of the Fosters family to grow up, and the idea for a spinoff starring Callie and Mariana was born. Freeform apparently liked what was pitched.
The executive producers do plan to maintain ties between The Fosters and the new show. In fact, they intend to bring all the characters from the original series to the spinoff as guest stars, which should be a treat for fans. Hopefully knowledge that the stories of the characters will continue will help soften the blow of the cancellation.
The Fosters will return to Freeform on Tuesday, January 9 at 8 p.m. ET with its Season 5 midseason premiere. For your other viewing options now and in the coming weeks, be sure to check out our 2018 midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule. Not too many shows other than The Fosters have been cancelled in 2018 so far, but you can find all those that got the axe last year in our 2017 TV cancellation breakdown.
