Everything the ‘This Is Us’ Cast Has Said About Leaving the Show Behind After Season 6: ‘It’s Senior Year’

Credit: Joe Pugliese/NBC

Everything the 'This Is Us' Cast Has Said About Leaving the Show Behind After Season 6: ‘It’s Senior Year’

Making the most of the time they have left! While fans had nearly nine months to cope with the news of This Is Us’ rapidly approaching series finale, the cast has remained emotional about saying goodbye to the beloved Pearson family.

“It’s bittersweet. I’m sure those last moments, everyone will be in tears,” Milo Ventimiglia, who plays patriarch Jack Pearson on the NBC drama, said during a January 2022 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. “Everyone will be crying. I think we’ve already established that the audience will be crying.”

The California native’s TV daughter, Chrissy Metz, also teased that she wasn’t ready to let go of her character, Kate Pearson, and everything she’s represented to the viewers over the years.

“I think what I will miss most about Kate is that, like, I think so many people — not even just women — relate to her and her walking imperfectly through her trials and tribulations, and all the shame and guilt that she's carried for so long,” the Florida native exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2022. “And it's really sort of like a torch that she's carrying and I think … that's a really special thing, to meet people that I've never met before and be able to cry in bathrooms with them about what they're going through.”

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Us confirmed in May 2021 that the popular family drama would end its run after its sixth season.

“We never set out to make a television series that was going to last 18 seasons, so we have a very direct plan. I have script pages I have written and I’m writing that really are deep, deep, deep into the future,” show creator Dan Fogelman previously told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “We have a plan for what we’re going to do, and I know what the plan is.”

The award-winning series, which premiered in September 2016, follows the lives of the Pearson family across multiple timelines as the “Big Three” siblings (played by Metz, Justin Hartley and Sterling K. Brown, respectively) grow up alongside their parents (portrayed by Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore). The show also stars Susan Kelechi Watson, Jon Huertas and Chris Sullivan.

Since the announcement of the final season, the cast has been emotionally preparing to say goodbye to their characters, costars and show.

“Season 6 coming to you January 4th. Man, I LOVE this family and savoring all of these moments together as we begin our journey to the finish line,” Moore wrote via Instagram in December 2021.

Scroll below to see how the cast has said goodbye to This Is Us ahead of its finale:

Credit: Joe Pugliese/NBC

Everything the 'This Is Us' Cast Has Said About Leaving the Show Behind After Season 6: ‘It’s Senior Year’

Making the most of the time they have left! While fans had nearly nine months to cope with the news of This Is Us’ rapidly approaching series finale, the cast has remained emotional about saying goodbye to the beloved Pearson family.

“It’s bittersweet. I’m sure those last moments, everyone will be in tears,” Milo Ventimiglia, who plays patriarch Jack Pearson on the NBC drama, said during a January 2022 appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. “Everyone will be crying. I think we’ve already established that the audience will be crying.”

The California native’s TV daughter, Chrissy Metz, also teased that she wasn’t ready to let go of her character, Kate Pearson, and everything she’s represented to the viewers over the years.

“I think what I will miss most about Kate is that, like, I think so many people — not even just women — relate to her and her walking imperfectly through her trials and tribulations, and all the shame and guilt that she's carried for so long,” the Florida native exclusively told Us Weekly in January 2022. “And it's really sort of like a torch that she's carrying and I think … that's a really special thing, to meet people that I've never met before and be able to cry in bathrooms with them about what they're going through.”

[jwplayer tfJbwWJy-zhNYySv2]

Us confirmed in May 2021 that the popular family drama would end its run after its sixth season.

“We never set out to make a television series that was going to last 18 seasons, so we have a very direct plan. I have script pages I have written and I’m writing that really are deep, deep, deep into the future,” show creator Dan Fogelman previously told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “We have a plan for what we’re going to do, and I know what the plan is.”

The award-winning series, which premiered in September 2016, follows the lives of the Pearson family across multiple timelines as the “Big Three” siblings (played by Metz, Justin Hartley and Sterling K. Brown, respectively) grow up alongside their parents (portrayed by Ventimiglia and Mandy Moore). The show also stars Susan Kelechi Watson, Jon Huertas and Chris Sullivan.

Since the announcement of the final season, the cast has been emotionally preparing to say goodbye to their characters, costars and show.

“Season 6 coming to you January 4th. Man, I LOVE this family and savoring all of these moments together as we begin our journey to the finish line,” Moore wrote via Instagram in December 2021.

Scroll below to see how the cast has said goodbye to This Is Us ahead of its finale:

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Delusional or Blubbering?

“I think the last day on set is going to be — either I'm going to be delusional that it's not the last day and thinking, ‘It's not the day, we're gonna come back,’ or I'm going to be a blubbering mess,” Metz exclusively told Us in January 2022. “I don't know if there's any in between.”

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Learning Life Lessons

“I want them to take away that we are all dealing with life on life's terms,” Metz told Us about what she hopes fans can glean from the finale. “It's not really what happens to you, but how you react to it, and also that every single one of those characters are just like any person that you might know. I hope they pull away with contentment [and think], ‘Wow, like, I got to see this really beautiful chapter of these people's lives and it's a blueprint for the way I could walk in the world.’” 

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Walking Down Memory Lane

"It hasn't been emotional yet," Kelechi Watson, who plays Beth Pearson, told E! News in December 2021, noting that Brown, her TV husband, might be the one to cry the most during the final take. "But we are starting to walk down memory lane a little bit, and it's starting to get a little realer. But I think all of us are kind of waiting. You kind of don't want to go there yet. I think we're waiting for when we shoot the last episode, which is in April."

Credit: NBC

Senior Year

The Gilmore Girls alum, for his part, was equally emotional about returning to work for the sixth season.

“Everybody’s excited. It’s senior year — or, you know, extension year! Everyone’s excited. Everyone feels good. You can tell everyone is present, and it’s the same well-oiled machine that we’ve been a part of for the last five years,” Ventimiglia exclusively told Us in October 2021. “I think everybody is grateful to be able to wrap it up the way that Dan Fogelman and the writers planned. Beyond that, [we’re excited to just] have fun and enjoy ourselves and be together as a group because this is the last go around.”

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

In Denial

“I think I’m in denial about it being the last season,” the A Walk to Remember star revealed during an NBC retrospective clip in May 2021.

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Forever?

“I guess I have not mentally prepared for it, no. It’ll be sad,” Hartley said during the NBC teaser clip in May 2021. “I really hate that this show is coming to an end. If I’m being honest, I could probably do this for the rest of my life.”

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Not Ready to Leave

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel actor told Seth Meyers, who previously guest-starred on an early episode of the show, that the whole cast will be "emotional" when the show wraps.

"We’ll have a hard time letting go. You’re on a show for so many years and you remember that first moment and [suddenly] then it’s done," Ventimiglia revealed during a January 2022 talk show appearance.

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Facing the End

"My emotions are always just right beneath the surface," Moore told reporters at the Critics Choice Awards in March 2022, referring to the final season as "bittersweet."

She continued: "I think we're all super emotional about it at this point but, like, trying to keep it together. I'm trying to just stay present and appreciate, you know, all the time that we have left with one another."

Credit: Ron Batzdorff/NBC

The Last Day

“I did have my final day on set and, yeah, it was bittersweet,” Huertas exclusively told Us in April 2022. “Part of me was really happy that we were able to end the story the way that we wanted to, and part of me is very sad that I'm not gonna be working with these actors on a daily basis and this crew. I’m gonna miss that, so that’s the sad part.”

He continued: “It’s really nice to be able to say, ‘We did that,’ and walk away without feeling any regret and not thinking like, ‘Oh, I wish we could've shot that one episode that we always talked about’ or ‘I wish we could've done this.’ We don't have to worry about that. … We’re happy and proud of [what we did].”