There were no big reveals out of the “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” Comic-Con panel Thursday night, but it didn’t really matter to the fans, who just came to celebrate the show’s un-cancellation — and thank creators and cast for its inclusiveness.
The panel, featuring stars Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Terry Crews, Melissa Fumero, Joe Lo Truglio, Chelsea Peretti, Dirk Blocker, Joel McKinnon Miller, co-creator/executive producer Dan Goor and executive producer Luke Del Tredici, spent some time talking about all things “Nine-Nine.” Which included the show’s revival on NBC 24 hours after being canceled on Fox, its celebrated ability to deal with sensitive subjects, and of course “title of your sex tape.”
But first the state of things. “Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ will return on NBC in the 2018-2019 mid-season. And according to Goor, they’re already “five weeks into pre-production,” and the writers’ room is up and running.
Of course, throughout the panel he was very reluctant to talk specifics, but he did joke at one point that “there’s a fun Hitchcock and Scully episode coming up. You might see them in their past at some point.”
Meanwhile, about the show’s revival on NBC, Crews called the cancellation “the saddest day ever,” adding that “I didn’t know what was up or down. You start looking at your kids like ‘you’re not that smart. You don’t need college’”
“But then the internet exploded,” said Fumero, referring to the massive outpouring of grief on social media that followed the cancellation. “I went from being so sad the show is over to “oh, there’s this amazing consolation prize that so many people love she show.”
The biggest running theme was the show’s inclusiveness and portrayal of under-represented groups, something numerous fans thanked cast and creators for during the audience Q&A. Fumero and Beatriz were brought to tears by one fan who told them how happy it makes her to see “two beautiful and strong Latinas” on the show. Another fan thanked Crews “for your part in Me Too,” adding “I’m so sorry for all of us that are part of Me Too that you have to be part of it.”
Asked if the show might strive for representations of mental health issues near the end of the Q&A, Samberg dropped the jokes for a moment to be clear about how seriously the show takes its more sensitive themes. Explaining how important it is for a sitcom to not make the issue itself a joke, he added that “those episodes take longer, because if you f–k it up it goes bad.”
And lest we forget, there were lots and lots and lots of “title of your sex tape” jokes. Our favorite? When Chelsea Peretti described her character, Gina Linetti, as “Sometimes she’s soft, then she’s hard.” Noice.