It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has become a television staple. The first season aired all the way back in 2005, and it's been going strong ever since, wrapping up its fourteenth season last fall. That is a remarkable run, but it turns out that the show is very much far from over, as it has been officially announced that a new deal has been struck between the series and FX, and that we are now set to get at least four more seasons – further expanding the record it holds for being the longest-running live-action comedy of all time.
This news was made official today during the Disney Investor call, FX President John Phillip Landgraf delivering the reveal while discussing the robust future that is planned for the network. We previously knew that the show was getting a 15th season (it's set to air next year), but the announcement that it will get three more seasons beyond that is terrifically exciting. We may not get all of the episodes like clockwork year after year, as the series has a history of jumping around the calendar every few seasons, but we do know that 40 more episodes are on the way.
With the exception of 2014, 2020 is the first year since the beginning of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia that we haven't seen a new season of the show, and while that's been a drag, Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and the great Danny DeVito have more than made up for the drought with this news. There was some suggestion via meta commentary in the Season 14 finale, "Waiting For Big Moe," that the cast was perhaps considering retiring The Gang, but the final moments (accented with an excellent use of the theme from The Shining) affirmed that they aren't going anywhere yet. Now this extension on further cements that.
We've seen Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Dee, and Frank go through a hell of a lot over the years, but part of what's so amazing about It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is that the cast has been able to successfully evolve over all of that time and remain both topical and hilarious. Given their track record in the last decade and a half, it's easy to imagine that they'll be able to keep things going at the same high quality, and we can't wait to see it.
For those of you who are seriously chomping at the bit waiting for new It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia adventures, the only bit of bad news is that we don't quite know exactly when that's going to happen. We know that Season 15 will be airing some time in 2021, but an official date has not yet been set. When it does air, episodes will first premiere on FX, and then will be available on Hulu the next day.
