Michelle Obama to guest star on new episode of ‘Black-ish’
Series creator Kenya Barris announced earlier this year that the show would end after its eighth season.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama will join the cast of Black-ish as a guest star for the upcoming eighth and final season, set to premiere in early 2022.
The Emmy-award-winning series shared a photo on Twitter of Obama along with stars Anthony Anderson, Trace Ellis Ross, Yara Shahidi, Marcus Scribner, Miles Brown, Marsai Martin, Laurence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, and Katlyn Nichol. “#blackish is going all out for the final season!” the series shared on Thursday. “We are honored to have trailblazer @MichelleObama join us as an upcoming guest star.”
black-ish creator Kenya Barris posted to Instagram in May that the series would end after its eighth season.
“To ALL the people in the world I love, honor, respect and care for it is both exciting and bittersweet to share that black-ish been RENEWED by ABC for it’s EIGHTH… and FINAL SEASON,” Barris wrote in part on Instagram. “In this day and age it is rare to get to decide when your show should come to an end, and we are grateful along with ABC to be able to make this final season exactly what we’d hoped for – and to do it with the entire and AMAZINGLY STELLAR cast coming back to close this chapter out with us the right way!”
The ABC series debuted on ABC in 2014 in the middle of former President Barack Obama’s second term. black-ish centers on a Black upper-middle-class family starring Anderson as Andre “Dre” Johnson and Ellis Ross as Rainbow Johnson, a character inspired by Barris’ wife of 20 years, Dr. Rania “Rainbow” Barris. The Johnsons dressed up as the Obamas in the Halloween episode “Jacked o’ Lantern” that aired during the second season.
Barris left ABC in 2018 over creative clashes with the network. ABC’s decision to ban an episode that centered around the NFL and police brutality was said to have been at the root of his exit, theGrio reported.
“I’m very grateful to Patrick Moran and his team at ABC Studios, who have supported me every step of the way as I created the worlds of Black-ish, Grown-ish, and now Besties. It has been an incredible ride including a Peabody and Golden Globe win, Emmy nominations, and many other accolades, Barris said in a statement at the time.
“This show has changed my life in so many ways and I am so proud of the conversations we’ve started along the way,” he said in a message on Instagram before praising the show for “allowing us to change not just the narrative of Black Families, but of Family, Culture, and the World in general. All the while allowing us to talk about things that people were not supposed to talk about period… especially on a network television comedy.”
According to a press release, Season 8 of black-ish will continue to tell stories that shine a light on current events through the lens of the Johnson family, including the global pandemic, voting, systemic racism, and the movement for social justice and equality.
An exact premiere date has not yet been announced for black-ish Season 8.
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