Will there be a This Is Us movie?
No official This Is Us movie has been greenlit yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen… eventually? Speaking at a press event in February 2022, This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman admitted, “If we could figure out a movie down the road, I’d love to get back together with these guys and do it.” It’s not just Fogelman; key cast members also seem on board with bringing the family back together for a movie. During a cast interview with E!in December 2021, Moore said she “would be game to do anything that would reunite me with everybody here.” Similarly, Chris Sullivan, who plays Toby, said he’s “always on board for the This Is Us family.” And Sterling K. Brown, who plays Randall, added, “We totally could. And that’s something, actually, I could definitely see [NBC] promoting it. Like, we’ve seen the Sex and the City joints, there’s an Entourage joint. If they can do it, why the hell not?” So while there’s no official confirmation of a This Is Us movie, we wouldn’t be surprised if it happens eventually.
Will there be a This Is Us spinoff?
If the Pearsons aren’t destined for the big screen, what about some of them returning to the small screen in an upcoming spinoff? In early April, Metz voiced her approval of the idea when she told ET, “I don’t know about a movie but I’n hoping a little reunion might be cute, maybe 5 or 10 years from now. But maybe there’ll be a beautiful spinoff. I don’t know. We’ll see.” Fogelman seemed even more open to the idea of a new spinoff or sequel series when he told EW, “We’re not all ready to end making this show… [so] who the hell knows? My wife is very excited to go turn on the Sex and the City [sequel , And Just LikeThat…] all this time later. So I’m not speaking about the far future—or even the near future—though there’s certainly no plans. But in terms of any continuous spinoff or continuation of the show? No, we’re definitely bringing it to the end.”
Who will be in the This Is Us movie?
Based on their enthusiastic responses in the E! interview, we can safely assume Moore, Sullivan, and Brown would be on board for a This Is Us movie. As for the rest of the Big Three, Chrissy Metz, who plays Kate, told Usin January 2022 that she expects to be in denial during her last day on the set of the series, “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 mused. Maybe the reason she thinks they’ll come back is because she has an inkling about an eventual movie? We’ll see. And Justin Hartley, who plays Kevin, said in an NBC teaser that aired 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.” So it’s safe to assume that he’d be back too. When it comes to Ventimiglia, though, he was doubtful about whether he’d have a place in the movie, since the series has already explored so much of Jack’s all-too-short life through flashbacks. “I don’t know if it will involve Jack because, by the time they usually get to movies, you know, years have passed,” he told E!. “I don’t know if Jack storylines will hold or carry through.” Still, maybe a potential This Is Us movie could find some still unexplored corners of Jack’s life so that we could see him one last time. And then of course, there’s the rest of the This Is Us cast—all the spouses, kids, and extended family (not to mention the young actors who portray the Big Three during earlier stages of their lives) we’ve grown to love as part of the Pearson family’s story. We would hope that a film would bring back most if not all of the show’s large ensemble, making it truly feel like a family reunion.
What will the This Is Us movie be about?
We’ll have to wait a bit longer to even begin to have an idea of what a This Is Us movie could be about. After all, with a show known for big twists and long leaps back and forth through time, it’s hard to predict exactly what sort of narrative ground won’t have been explored yet. “I don’t know what that would be,” Fogelman told reporters at the February 2022 panel about the plot of a hypothetical This Is Us movie. “By the end of this season, I think we’ll have told the complete story, so, I’m not sure. If you’re doing the movie of, like, what would happen if Jack survived the fire or something, but I don’t know…” Still, just because Fogelman can’t think up a storyline now doesn’t mean that will still be the case once the show ends. “I say no to nothing,” Fogelman told reporters. “I’m very aware that a midlife crisis is right around the corner for me, and that whatever I do next, I’m going to hate in comparison to the show and these actors, so I say no to nothing.” No matter what story the movie decides to tell, it will have to involve flashbacks (or an alternate timeline) if Moore and Mlo Ventimiglia are to be involved. After all, Jack died back in 1998, and all of the flash-forwards thus far have seemed to be leading up to Rebecca’s death from Alzheimer’s sometime in the 2030s. Since we expect the remainder of Season 6 of the series to fill in a lot of the years leading up to her death, it seems like the most fertile ground to explore for Jack and Rebecca may still be in the distant past. That said, a This Is Us movie could also venture even further into the future, perhaps even exploring the adult lives of Rebecca and Jack’s grandchildren. This has always been a series that plays around with time, so maybe a movie could provide an opportunity for the Big Three to finally don the old people makeup? In that scenario, maybe Rebecca and Jack could exist in flashback, or even as dreams or visions. Suffice it to say whether the film takes place in the past, present, or future—or all three—it seems like there are plenty of storytelling options for it to explore.
When will the This Is Us movie premiere?
Since we don’t know for sure that a This Is Us movie is even happening yet, it’s impossible to predict when it might come out. Still, the wait might not be as long as we might fear. “All these shows that are getting rebooted, didn’t they just end five, six, seven years ago?” Moore said to E! “Are we going to be doing This Is Us the reboot in six years?” She was partially joking, but she’s not wrong. Sex and the City ended in 2004, and the first movie premiered in 2008. Entourage ended in 2011, with a movie following it in 2015. Downton Abbey aired its last episode in 2016, and the movie hit theaters in 2019. With that sort of precedent, maybe we’ll be lucky enough to get a This Is Us movie before the actors playing the elementary-aged Big Three on the show even hit their teenage years. Next, Do Kate and Toby Stay Together on This Is Us? What We Learned From the New Episode 9 Promo!
