Orange Is The New Black will end with its upcoming season 7 on Netflix. The season will premiere in 2019.
OITNB was renewed for a seventh season when the Lionsgate-produced series received a three-season pickup ahead of season four back in 2016. The news that season seven will be the dramedy’s last comes as little surprise given the bulk pickup — a first at the time for Netflix.
After spending six years in the minimum and maximum security prisons of Litchfield Penitentiary, OITNB delivered a game-changing finale at the end of season six. The series set the stage for its final run when its central character, inmate Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), was released early. That allowed season seven to follow her life outside the show’s central core of inmates for the first time since season one.
Vice President of Original Content Cindy Holland had this to say about the ending of the show:
“During production of Season 1, everyone involved with Orange Is The New Black felt like we knew a special secret we couldn’t wait to share with the world. Since then, we have laughed, cried, raged, and roared with the women of Litchfield, and every moment spent with them felt like borrowed time — too good to last forever. We will be sad to say goodbye but we will definitely be going out on a high. We are grateful to Jenji Kohan and her groundbreaking vision; to her supremely talented team of writers and producers; and to a once-in-a-lifetime cast and crew for creating a truly special work of art that has inspired conversations and connected audiences around the world.”
Created by Kohan, based on Piper Kerman’s memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, the series has received widespread acclaim since its 2013 premiere, becoming Netflix’s most-watched original series. For its first season, the series earned 12 Primetime Emmy nominations including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, winning three. It went on to earn an additional four Emmy noms in Season 2, including Outstanding Drama Series, and win for Uzo Aduba for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. It is the first series to score Emmy nominations in both comedy and drama categories. The series also has received six Golden Globe Award nominations, six Writers Guild of America Award nominations, a Producers Guild of America Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award.
