Spoilers ahead for The Fosters' series finale.
The Fosters has officially come to an end after five seasons on Freeform. The show wrapped over the course of three nights with three episodes that tied up a number of arcs, closed off some big relationships, and opened some door for what could happen next for the characters. There's no saying at this point all of the characters will have their stories continued, but's definitely more in store for Callie and Mariana. They'll star in a spinoff called Good Trouble, and Fosters executive producer Peter Paige has revealed what viewers can expect from the spinoff in the wake of the Fosters series finale:
It's going to be really good! I'm really excited about it! The world we've found for them, their jobs, the place they're living, the people they're surrounded with is really good. It's a beautiful, messy, adult extension of the heart of The Fosters... Part of the entire reason we wanted to do a spin-off was to keep the family alive. And I know the fans are struggling, as we all are, of letting go of the show as it was, but this is what life does. You live with your family for awhile and then you move out into the world and you still have your family, you just don't get to see them every night when you go home for dinner. One of the reasons we said, 'Yes, we absolutely have to make this show,' was so that we could keep the entire Fosters clan alive.
The Good Trouble spinoff was announced back in January, which was a bit of good news to go with the sad announcement that The Fosters would officially end after Season 5. The spinoff scored an order for 13 episodes right off the bat, so it seemed like Freeform was optimistic about how the family's stories could continue even after their time on The Fosters comes to an end. When the spinoff was first announced, all we really knew what that it would be set several years in the future and follow Callie and Mariana as they pursue very different paths even as they share a home in Los Angeles.
The big Fosters finale set the spinoff up in a way that prepares Callie and Mariana to take charge of their own stories while certainly not closing the door on potential appearances from the rest of their family members. Although the girls did move away, they stuck together, and they won't exactly be isolated in Los Angeles. Jude, Brandon, and Eliza are all in L.A. as well. We shouldn't expect Jude et all to show up on a weekly basis when Good Trouble kicks off, but they could certainly have parts to play in Callie and Mariana's lives.
Of course, there was a bit of tension between Callie and Mariana throughout the final episodes, so some viewers may have been surprised at the reveal that they'd move to L.A. to continue their lives together. Peter Paige, who will also executive produce Good Trouble, said this in his chat with EW about why they decided to stick together after the Fosters finale:
[P]art of the reason that Callie and Mariana moved to the big city together is they're adopted kids. They're foster kids. They have been unmoored. Whereas so many of us are anxious to get unmoored from our families, in Callie's case, it's only been a few years that she's had a family to call her own again. So I think those ties are different for them. The average kid who's grown up with an intact nuclear family may feel like, 'Oh, Jesus Christ, I can't wait to be 18 and get outta here,' but there are other kids who have a much harder time with that, and I think psychologically it's really sound that these particular kids would still long for the protection, the rock that is the family.
Family is especially important to Callie and Mariana after all their ups and downs on The Fosters; it should be fun to see how they grow together and separately in their new show. You can see more of the Fosters family when Good Trouble premieres on Freeform in 2019.
If you need some shows to watch between now and the new year, check out our summer TV premiere schedule, our 2018 Netflix premiere guide, and our 2018 Amazon Prime rundown. For other shows beyond The Fosters that have had their fates decided, take a gander at our rundown of network TV renewals and cancellations.
