Reflecting on four seasons of the hit Netflix adaptation, Steve Blackman discusses the challenges of concluding the series in six episodes and the significance of the ending.

He also talks about the show's diversity, legacy, and the allegations made by former writers.

The Hargreeves siblings finally save the day.

For those who have followed the show for the past five years, and the crew and creative team who have been with it for nearly twice as long, it’s a bittersweet ending for one of TV’s favorite dysfunctional (and lovable) families.

As one of the most popular genre series, Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s graphic novel adaptation managed to carve out a distinctive corner within the superhero space.

This is due, in part, to its colorful cast, including leads like Viktor, Justin Min (Ben), Tom Hopper (Luther), Emmy Raver-Lampman (Allison), Robert Sheehan (Klaus), David Castañeda (Diego), Aidan Gallagher (Number Five), Ritu Arya (Lila Pitts), and Colm Feore (Sir Reginald).

The show's success is also due to four seasons of grand world-building, supported by sharp writers, directors, and production teams who have elevated its comedy, action, sets, costumes, music, VFX, cinematography, and more.

This refreshing spin on the genre garnered the show a dedicated following, an audience that Blackman hopes will feel satisfied by the series’ final six episodes and ultimately, the show’s legacy.

Ahead of the final season’s premiere, Blackman spoke about the meaning behind the ending, the final days on set, and growing alongside his cast and crew for more than half a decade.

He also addressed potential spinoffs, what he’s most proud of about the show’s run, and where he thinks there were missed storytelling opportunities.

Gerard and Gabriel have been lovely from the very beginning.

Every year, they discussed things with Blackman, and Gerard graciously said, “Look, the TV show and the graphic novel are going to be different.

” They will continue with the graphic novel long after the show ends.

Every year, Blackman ran things by them, and they provided feedback.

It has always been a wonderfully collaborative process.

They have such a generosity of spirit.

Blackman ran everything by them in the end, and they thought it was a great ending for the TV show.

They may go somewhere else, but they’ve been lovely from start to finish.

Blackman couldn’t get luckier with two great creative people.

The decision was made at a certain point that Netflix wanted six episodes.

Blackman was fine with that.

He could have been happy with eight, but it really worked out well.

Some of the things they wanted to do got jettisoned along the way.

Blackman wanted to tell a little bit more story with Viktor and Hargreeves.

He wanted to do a little bit more with Luther and what happened to Sloane.

But at the end of the day, when forced to do a certain amount, it forces you to focus on what’s most important.

What are the things that really matter in the storytelling? Sometimes, when you don’t get the luxury of ten episodes, you really get to focus on the things that are really important—not just to the writers and producers, but to the fans.

Blackman hopes they did justice to that for the fans.

It was an amazing bit of luck.

Blackman had read that Megan and Nick liked working together as husband and wife, and he thought, “I’ll take a chance.

” He didn’t think he had any hope of getting them.

So he reached out, they did a Zoom together, and it turns out they’re superfans of the show.

They knew every episode, every character.

They were so excited to meet the cast.

Blackman thought, “This just might work.

” They said, “We want to do this.

We want to work together as husband and wife.

We want to meet the cast.

” One of the best days was when they showed up on set.

The cast ran over, they ran to the cast.

They were all so excited to see each other.

David came along just because Blackman wanted to work with David.

He wasn’t familiar with the show but has become a superfan.

Having three comic geniuses together, the crew and Blackman laughed so much because they did so many things unscripted.

They would just riff, and sometimes it was hard to keep the camera steady with everyone laughing.

Blackman wasn’t sure if he thought of it that way.

He wanted to tie up a lot of loose ends.

They’ve had such great fans over the years, and they’re so loyal.

Blackman wanted to make sure he answered some of the big questions.

Some of them he wanted to leave unanswered, to let viewers decide on their own what happens and what it means.

The Jennifer incident was important to close that loop, and a few other things.

Blackman was looking at it from the perspective of what he wanted to answer that the fans wanted to know.

If he was a fan, what would he hate to leave unanswered?Blackman had been trying to get “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” by Cher for years, and she had said no many times.

He’s just a big fan.

He thinks she’s phenomenal.

Culturally, she’s been everywhere in the zeitgeist for four decades, and this time she said yes.

Blackman was excited to get that song, and it worked really well in the moment with Jean and Gene.

There were quite a few songs from the seventies that they thought for sure the artists would say yes to, but they said no.

Even Adele, getting her to do “Hello” in season three, the Swedish version, was a hard get.

It was only when Blackman explained to her that a young woman from Sweden trying to get a career sang it that she changed her mind and said they could use it.

They don’t say no automatically, so you have to work for it sometimes.

They got lucky with a few songs this year.

The Tokyo subway system was very confusing to Blackman when he looked at it, and he thought, “Let’s take that to the extreme.

” Ultimately, Five finds the cipher in episode five, which explains how it works, but without the cipher, it’s just impossible—although Lila thinks she can figure it out.

It’s taken to the absurd of what a subway system could be like.

If you have unlimited timelines, that’s what the subway system looks like.

It was a lot of fun.

Blackman sat down with the writers and joked about where the characters would be.

They knew Luther would not be able to have a stable job because he’s a bit of a man-child.

They always thought he would be the one most OK with living an “ordinary life,” despite unresolved issues with his dad.

With Diego and Lila, it made sense that they would try being domesticated.

Children are a complication, so it just fell into place easily, and they all agreed on those things as writers, and they all played out really well.

Blackman has no regrets about what each of them ended up doing.

They wanted to show some really interesting extensions of powers so it wouldn’t feel too derivative.

The logic was they never took Marigold that fast.

That shot of Marigold was like an overdose, so things were not going to happen the way they expected.

Blackman wanted to have fun with the storytelling, so it evolved from the storytelling what their powers would be.

He knew very early on, almost in season one, that he didn’t see it as killing them.

He thought there was an interesting idea of ceasing to exist, to never have been known.

What is a superhero if no one knows you exist? That was the philosophical question.

Can you be a superhero if no one ever knew you were a superhero? What does it mean to them? And he also thought it was an incredible sacrifice.

It might be worse than being dead.

If you never existed, what does that mean? Does anything in your life have any meaning? It’s not that you lived and died—you never lived.

Blackman thought it was a very powerful concept to play with non-existence as opposed to just dying.

In his mind, they never existed.

They didn’t die.

They just ceased to exist.

They never were.

And what does that mean?It didn’t seem right for them to bring their families down that road with them.

Blackman felt the families had to survive because they were good parents and they all loved their kids; those aunts and uncles and moms and dads and everything else.

He didn’t want them to die.

Then they had this device of the subway, which allowed them within the logic of the show to exist.

Blackman doesn’t give away whether or not in that very final scene they remember the families they were.

He just knows that they’re alive, and the fans can decide whether or not they remembered everything from the past.

Are they the only people remembering these people ever existing or not?If you juxtapose from season one where they’re so immature with each other, Blackman doesn’t think they quite love each other in season one when they regroup after the trauma of their father’s death.

He thinks they truly love each other at this point.

They really are a family.

They’re family and now love each other, and want to be together in this final moment.

They don’t want to be going off alone.

This is how they want to be.

The love is real, the camaraderie, the loyalty is real.

That’s the journey for them.

By the end, they truly are a family.

Not to complicate it, but this is the Hargreeves of the Sparrow Academy timeline, so it’s not the Hargreeves that raised them.

Similar, but not the dad who made the mistakes, though