USA Network’s flagship legal drama Suits is set to return for one final hurrah, with the first episode of Season 9 premiering on July 17th.
The final season will feature ten episodes, with creator Aaron Korsh assuring fans that the focus of these would be firmly upon exploring the characters’ personal lives and concocting a satisfactory emotional conclusion for the fans.
Gabriel Macht will return as protagonist Harvey Specter, and the character will presumably continue to tread on the road of the belated self-realization he underwent at the tail-end of Season 8, at last coming to terms with the things that mean most to him.
Also returning will be the likes of Katherine Heigl, whose character Samantha Wheeler’s journey to becoming a senior partner was one of last season’s mainstays, Rick Hoffmann as the beloved Louis Litt, and Sarah Rafferty as Donna Paulsen.
But, too many fans of the show, the focus remains on the decision to make the coming season. It’s last; one was seemingly taken in light of lacking commercial viability.
Although one of American cable television’s hottest properties, Suits witnessed a sharp viewership decline during Season 8, with figures dropping from an average 1.30 million viewers the year before to merely 1.02 million.
This was, in part, due to the departures of Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams.
Markle portrayed Rachel Zane for seven seasons of the show, becoming a fan-favorite in the process, and leaving them bitterly disappointed when the show’s creators confirmed that she’d be unavailable for Season 8, and her character written out of the show, due to prior commitments stemming from her marriage with Prince Harry.
This effectively also meant the end of the line for Mike Ross, portrayed by Adams, whose wedding with Rachel brought a conclusion to Season 7, thus costing the large fan-base another entity.
And though Season 9 will mark the final on-screen outing for the ensemble cast together, fans of the show have little to rue, as a spin-off titled Pearson, starring Gina Torres as the eponymous character, will debut alongside it.