Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 confirmed to return in 2021

28 August 2020, 12:01

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By Katie Louise Smith

The first four episodes of season 8, which was scheduled to air this autumn, were scrapped following the Black Lives Matter protests.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans, we have some news. Yep, for those of you who were hoping to see the return of Jake Peralta and the rest of the squad in 2020, it looks like you're going to have to wait a little longer.

It's now been confirmed that season 8 of the comedy series will not be returning until 2021 at the earliest, after the show was removed from NBC's new autumn line-up. As reported by Deadline, B99 was included in the fall schedule back in June, but has now been pushed back to 2021.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 has been affected by two delays in production: One due to the ongoing pandemic, and one due to the first four episodes of the new season being scrapped in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 8 not returning until 2021. Picture: NBC, John P. Fleenor/NBC

Back in June, Terry Crews (who plays Lt. Terry Jeffords on the show) told Access Daily that show runner Dan Goor had thrown four episode scripts from season 8 in the bin following the protests against police brutality, the death of George Floyd and the wider Black Lives Matter conversation.

“We’ve had a lot of somber talks about it and deep conversations and we hope through this we’re going to make something that will be truly groundbreaking this year. We have an opportunity and we plan to use it in the best way possible,” Terry said. “Our show-runner Dan Goor, they had four episodes all ready to go and they just threw them in the trash. We have to start over. Right now we don’t know which direction it’s going to go in.”

While Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a light-hearted comedy series, the show hasn't shied away from addressing systemic racism within the police department. In season 4, Terry was racially profiled by a white police officer in his own neighbourhood. It sounds like season 8 will reset and now address more of those very real issues head on.

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Speaking to EW's The Awardist podcast, Andre Braugher (who plays Captain Raymond Holt) spoke about the way police are portrayed on TV, and why it needs to change – particularly on Brooklyn Nine-Nine too.

"It's a very complicated subject, but I think they have to be portrayed much more realistically, in terms of this: The convention... that police breaking the law is okay because somehow it's in the service of some greater good, is a myth that needs to be destroyed," he said.

"We're going into an eighth season with a new challenge which is that everyone's knowledge and feelings about police... have been profoundly affected. What we have from Dan [Goor] is a commitment to write a smart show that will not attempt to hide itself in a fantasy. So the Nine-Nine is going to have to deal with what we know about the New York Police Department."