Nick Miller has saved the day again. In an interview with TVLine, Jake Johnson revealed that New Girl Season 7 is happening thanks in part to his plea to Fox. The man who has spent six seasons playing the hilarious, down on his luck Nick was eager to write a letter to Fox's top brass explaining why Jess Day's journey shouldn't end with an (admittedly romantic) elevator kiss. According to TVLine, series creator Liz Meriwether asked her cast to write letters of support for the final season to Fox's co-chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman. Johnson was one of the castmembers who was ready and willing to go to bat for the series.
For Johnson, the desire to give the viewers a proper ending was one of his chief motivators. He told TVLine that he wrote,
"I've done a lot of projects — and some of the projects have fans and some don't. And to be on a television show that actually has a group of people who care [is special]."
While the fans were on Johnson's mind, so were the show's characters. For six seasons, Johnson has played Nick, a man who is constantly evolving. Nick has transformed from a heartbroken guy with the credit score of a ghost to someone who has realized his dream of becoming a writer and opened himself up to the possibility of love again. New Girl is the rare sitcom where the cast isn't stuck in a state of perpetual limbo. Nick, Jess, Schmidt, Cece, Winston — they've all grown up over the course of the series, and Johnson agreed with Meriwether that their journeys deserved a proper conclusion.
Johnson got straight to the heart of the matter in his letter. He reportedly wrote,
"I don't think you gave us enough time to finish the show the right way. And I would really appreciate — and I think the fans would appreciate — a final goodbye to these characters."
The social media reaction to the news indicates that Johnson was absolutely right. While the Season 6 finale was satisfying, it was also a bit rushed to serve as a series finale. All of the characters were poised to start new chapters of their lives as Cece and Schimdt discovered they were expecting, Winston proposed to Aly, and Nick and Jess finally found their way back to each other. In truth, each one of those scenarios is a beginning, not an ending, and after following the residents of the loft through six years of ups and downs, fans deserved to see what happens next.
Just don't expect Season 7 to pick up exactly where Season 6 left off. The final season will consist of just eight episodes, and it will kickoff with a four year time jump. That means Schmidt and Cece will officially be parents, and Nick and Jess will have been together for quite some time. Skipping ahead four years is the best way to see how Nick and Jess function as a long-term couple, and to see how this close-knit group of pals are maintaining their friendships as their lives and careers move in different directions.
As far as Johnson is concerned, the time-jump is an excellent idea. He explained to TVLine,
"I think it's cool to do a time jump. I think we we were running in circles a little bit, so I think jumping forward [is smart]. Everyone is a little further along [with their lives]."
If not for Johnson, Meriwether, and the other castmembers who wrote letters to Fox, the answers to those questions would've likely remained a mystery. Happily, it seems clear that Johnson and the rest of the New Girl gang are just as passionate about seeing the series get the ending it deserves as the fans are.
