“Grace and Frankie” has been renewed for a seventh and final season, Netflix said Wednesday, adding that the supersize final season would have 16 episodes (three more than the previous seasons).
That additional episode order means that by the end of its run, the Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda-led comedy will be the longest-running Netflix original series ever, including both comedy and drama, with 94 episodes.
Season 6, which wrapped production earlier this year, will launch on the streaming service in January 2020 and star Fonda, Tomlin, Sam Waterston, Martin Sheen, June Diane Raphael, Brooklyn Decker, Baron Vaughn and Ethan Embry, who will all return to reprise their roles in the final season.
“Grace and Frankie” stars Fonda as Grace and Tomlin as Frankie, two women whose lives are turned upside down when their husbands reveal they are gay and leave them for each other. Both sparring partners and partners-in-crime, Grace and Frankie form an unlikely and unbreakable bond and face their uncertain futures head-on, hand-in-hand. Together with their ex-husbands and children, they discover the true definition of “family,” with laughter, tears and plenty of mood enhancers along the way.
“It’s thrilling and somehow fitting, that our show about the challenges, as well as the beauty and dignity of aging, will be the oldest show on Netflix,” co-creators and showrunners Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris said in a statement Wednesday.
Fonda and Tomlin added: “We are both delighted and heartbroken that ‘Grace & Frankie’ will be back for its seventh, though final, season. We’re so grateful that our show has been able to deal with issues that have really connected to our grand generation. And their kids, and amazingly, their kids as well! We’ll miss these two old gals, Grace and Frankie, as much as many of their fans will, but we’ll still be around. We’ve outlasted so many things–just hope we don’t outlast the planet.”
Kauffman and Morris will return as showrunners and executive producers of the final season, alongside executive producers Paula Weinstein, Robbie Tollin, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Skydance’s David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Marcy Ross.
The series hails from Skydance Television.
To date, “Grace and Frankie” has earned 11 Primetime Emmy and 6 Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, including nominations for both Fonda and Tomlin and a Golden Globe nomination for Tomlin.
“Since its premiere in 2015, ‘Grace and Frankie’ has expertly and hilariously demystified the experience of growing older and given a voice to the fastest growing segment of our population,” stated Netflix’s VP of Original Series Cindy Holland. “Jane, Lily, Sam, and Martin have become role models for fans that span generations around the world, and we are so proud to have been a part of the show’s journey from day one. A special thanks to Marta, Howard, and the team at Skydance, who have been superb partners every step of the way.”
“David, Marcy and I, along with the entire team at Skydance couldn’t be prouder to have Grace and Frankie launch our television division. We are thankful to our partners at Netflix who stepped up to make a show for people who didn’t see themselves on television,” said Dana Goldberg, Chief Creative Officer, Skydance. “Seven seasons later Grace and Frankie has captured the zeitgeist and audiences of all ages thanks to the brilliant vision of Marta Kauffman and Howard Morris and the incredible talent of our cast led by legends Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.”