The upcoming seventh season of the award-winning Netflix series Orange is the New Black will be its last, according to the streaming service.
Season 7 of Orange is the New Black will premiere in 2019, bringing the wildly popular, acclaimed series about a group of female inmates at the fictional Litchfield Penitentiary in upstate New York to an end. The show’s impending conclusion was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter and was later confirmed by Netflix, series creator Jenji Kohan, and the series’ cast.
“After seven seasons, it’s time to be released from prison. I will miss all the badass ladies of Litchfield and the incredible crew we’ve worked with. My heart is orange but fade to black,” said Kohan in a statement.
Many of the series longstanding cast members appear on a video message posted to the show’s Twitter account, thanking fans for their support and bidding farewell to Orange is the New Black.
Warning: This may make you cry. The Final Season, 2019. #OITNB pic.twitter.com/bUp2yY0aoK
— Orange Is the New Black (@OITNB) October 17, 2018
“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,” Netflix Vice President of Originals Cindy Holland said in a statement confirming the show’s conclusion with season 7. “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.”
A multiple award-winner throughout its run, the series was initially inspired by Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, which chronicled her experiences at minimum-security federal prison FCI Danbury. The television series cast Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman, a woman living a comfortable middle-class life in New York City, only to find herself sentenced to 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary for transporting a suitcase of drug money 10 years ago for her then-girlfriend, Alex (played by Laura Prepon). The show followed her experiences in prison and those of her fellow inmates and touched on a wide range of social and political issues at play in American society today.
Orange is the New Black eventually became the most-watched original series on Netflix, and earned 16 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning four times. In 2015, it became the first series to earn Emmy nominations in both the comedy and drama categories, and cast member Uzo Aduba later became the first actress — and only the second actor ever — to win Emmy Awards in both the drama and comedy categories for the same role.
The series also went on be nominated for Golden Globe Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, while also winning four Screen Actors Guild Awards, two GLAAD Media Awards, and a Peabody Award, among a long list of accolades.
The sixth season of Orange is the New Black explored the aftermath of a prison riot at Litchfield, and featured dramatic turns in the story arcs for several longstanding cast members. There is currently no premiere date announced for season 7.
