The Black-ish empire is going to continue to grow. Fresh off spin-offs that include Grown-ish and Mixed-ish, it has been announced that a third spin-off called Old-ish, is in development at ABC. Kenya Barris, who is under an overall deal with Netflix, will write the third spin-off that is set to see Laurence Fishburne and Jenifer Lewis reprise their roles as Earl "Pops" Johnson and Ruby Johnson, the parents of Anthony Anderson's Dre.
Fishburne has been an executive producer on Black-ish since it began back in 2014 and has also been a recurring character on the show, appearing in more than 60 of the series' 141 episodes so far. Lewis was a recurring player during the show's first season but was then bumped up to a series regular during season two. Fishburne will also be an executive producer on the spin-off while Lewis will receive a producing credit.
Old-ish will follow Ruby and Earl as they give love a second chance. When they move to a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood of L.A., they'll meet characters who represent the old and new faces of the community as they try to make it work as a married couple. Again. For anyone that has watched Black-ish, they are some of the funniest characters from that series and their chemistry leads to some truly golden moments of comedy. This can definitely be fun if it's done right.
This will make the third spin-off of Black-ish which already includes the ABC-turned-Freeform entry Grown-ish, starring Yara Shahidi, and Mixed-ish, a 1980s-set prequel built around the younger version of Tracee Ellis Ross' character, Rainbow. While Grown-ish was originally developed for ABC, the network at the time thought it skewed too young and it was eventually picked up to series at Disney's younger-skewing basic cable network, Freeform. Grown-ish has become a signature series for Freeform during a time when the younger-skewing network really needed a hit after losing Pretty Little Liars. The show returns for its fourth season in 2021. Mixed-ish, starring Arica Himmel, Tika Sumpter, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, will return for its second season on ABC sometime in the 2020-21 season.
Despite Kenya Barris departing ABC for a very lucrative deal with Netflix, he is actively involved in all of the ish shows. While others serve as showrunners, Barris has a carve-out in his Netflix deal that allows him to remain deeply connected to the franchise. It really is the best of both worlds situation and if both entities are willing to make it work, I say more power to Barris for having a connection with ABC and Netflix.
Will YOU be watching Old-ish?