The 'Suits' Creator Promises That Harvey & Crew Will Get Their Happy Endings

After nine intense and dramatic seasons, it was confirmed earlier this year that Suits won't return for Season 10. The USA legal drama, created by Aaron Korsh, premiered all the way back in 2011 and eventually became one of the network's most popular original series. However, it suffered more than a minor hiccup following the departure of three of its core cast members between Season 6 and Season 7, resulting in declining ratings and some seriously disgruntled fans.

While Suits did manage to chug along for two more seasons by adding in new cast members Katherine Heigl and Dulé Hill, showrunners knew that Season 9 would mark the end of the road for the series.

The decision to end the show after Season 9 was one that was made several years ago. As Korsh explained in an interview with Deadline, he approached USA after Season 6 to figure out how long the series could be extended given that the cast was only under contract until the end of Season 7.

"We had to figure out what to do, and we weren’t 100% sure what the cast wanted to do," Korsh recalled. "We’d lost Gina and we came up with a plan to extend the cast for two more years beyond season 7 to seasons 8 and 9. The goal was to have a 16-episode season 8 and a 10-episode season 9."

While Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams's exit after Season 7 threw Suits' future into an even greater state of uncertainty, things ultimately came together when Katherine Heigl decided to join the cast, enabling Korsh to "help extend the franchise and make it to that end of Season 9," he added in the same interview.

Suits has never been short on drama and Season 9 is no different. As the series draws closer to the finale, Katrina has been fired for leaking information to Mike and Samantha while the latter two are teaming up to fight Faye in court with a wrongful termination suit. But while there's still plenty of tension to be resolved, Korsh has promised that Suits will have a relatively happy ending.

"I haven’t figured out how every one of them is going to end up but what I can say is, there’s no chance the series is going to be ending on a horrible ending, with tremendous sadness," he told Deadline. "It will probably end with some happiness and some sadness. That’s my guess."

Of course, just because Suits Season 10 is out of the question doesn't mean we have to say goodbye to all of the beloved characters it created. Gina Torres, who plays Jessica Pearson, has already received her own spin-off show Pearson, and while it's still uncertain whether it will return for Season 2 after the tepid response to the first season, it's not unreasonable to think that there may be a demand for it once Suits is off the air for those jonesing to see their favorite characters again.

In the meantime, fans can still follow the show's stars in other projects. Heigl will join the upcoming series Firefly Lane while former cast member Patrick J. Adams is in pre-production for a new series called The Right Stuff. Sarah Rafferty, who plays Donna, is set to make a leap to the big screen in Browse, and Dulé Hill is working on the Psych 2 TV movie.

While it's sad to say goodbye, if Korsh delivers on his promises, fans can rest easy knowing their favorite characters will be just fine.