‘Forever’ Creator Mara Brock Akil Wrote an Open-Ended Finale in Case Netflix Series Doesn’t Get a Season 2

Note: This story contains spoilers from “Forever.”

“Forever” creator and showrunner Mara Brock Akil said she penned an open-ended finale for the teen romance series just in case it doesn’t get picked up for Season 2, mentioning that she’s experienced too many instances of her popular shows getting canceled.

“You’re meeting me at a time that I’m living completely in the moment. I don’t have a Season 2 right now. I have a Season 1 that I’m so proud of,” Akil told TheWrap. “I wanted to also be able to, in case there wasn’t [a Season 2] — because we are in a business where sometimes the show goes on, and you want it to go on but it doesn’t, for whatever reasons.”

Akil’s hefty Hollywood career as a TV crreator traces back to the early ’90s, during which she wrote on Fox’s “South Central,” wrote and produced on UPN’s “Moesha,” The WB’s “The Jamie Foxx Show” and more. In 2000, she became the youngest Black American showrunner in network TV when she created her sitcom “Girlfriends,” which was abruptly canceled in 2008. She was also the first Black American woman to have two series run at the same on network TV. Akil’s “The Game,” a spinoff of “Girlfriends,” originally ran on the CW for three seasons before it was canceled in May 2009. In 2011, it moved to BET and continued on until 2015. The series was revived briefly in May 2021 on Paramount+, but it was canceled after airing its second season. Akil’s other shows “Being Mary Jane,” “Love Is” and “Black Lightning,” a joint effort from Akil and her husband, Salim Akil, all suffered similar closures, despite their popularity and fan following.

“My career is littered with unceremonious endings,” Akil said. “So I needed for me, for Mara in this moment and for these characters, to write something that if we never saw it again, we would be satisfied. And it would also pace with the book, but also leave it where there’s so much possibility and beauty for them to continue.”

In the Season 1 finale for “Forever,” after acknowledging how their heavy love affair was negatively impacting their individual growth, Justin and Keisha made the decision to call it quits, but it’s clear love is still in the air.

“I think there’s so much future for the both of them in storytelling, and I think [a Season 2] would be amazing,” Akil said. “But as an artist, I make the work for the audience, and this is the business. I think the audience has to speak to their desire to want to see more of them, and so I’m very curious, can a love story resonate globally that would encourage us to want to make us a Season 2?”

She continued, adding that the show closing out in the year 2018 presents even more space for a reunion between Justin and Keisha.

“It’s interesting — Justin says [in the series], ‘Hey, I want to delay going to school, and maybe I’ll go in 2020.’ Every time I saw that in editing, even in performance, it hits you. Like, it hits you in the gut, because we know what happened in 2020 and Justin, Keisha, Dawn, Eric, Shelly and everybody, they don’t know. And that’s the thing, we don’t know our future,” Akil said. “But I think with love, we can get through a lot of it. So I say, if the audience loves it, I believe there could be a Season 2 and I would love to [do it.] I would love to journey through and figure out what their 2020 looks like. Imagine that, right? That would be exciting.”

As a viewer, it’s evident that love still simmers between them, and though the two are heading out into their professional ventures, Akil said the teens are an example how to love and let go.

“I’m so happy that Justin and Keisha were able to end their relationship in love,” Akil said. “I actually think they are a role models for anybody in love and needing to separate, that you can choose yourself and still remain loving towards somebody that you were once in love with and may still be in love with.”

“Forever” is now streaming on Netflix.

The post ‘Forever’ Creator Mara Brock Akil Wrote an Open-Ended Finale in Case Netflix Series Doesn’t Get a Season 2 appeared first on TheWrap.