Andy Samberg Says ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Writers & Cast Are ‘Rethinking’ How to ‘Move Forward’

Meredith Jacobs July 7, 2020, 10:45 am

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What Brooklyn Nine-Nine will look like in Season 8 is still very much up in the air.

“We’re taking a step back, and the writers are all rethinking how we’re going to move forward,” series star Andy Samberg, who plays Detective Jake Peralta, told People. The writers and the cast are talking about “how you make a comedy show about police right now, and if we can find a way of doing that that we all feel morally okay about.” But while that is “definitely a challenge,” the actor continued, he’s certain they’ll come up with a way.

8 Burning Questions for 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' Season 8

Samberg isn’t the first B99 cast member to reveal that the plans for the series moving forward have changed due to George Floyd’s death and the protests against police brutality. Terry Crews, who stars as Lieutenant Terry Jeffords, previously shared that they’re starting over despite already having scripts written. “Our showrunner Dan Goor, they had four episodes all ready to go and they just threw them in the trash,” he said. “Right now we don’t know which direction it’s going to go in.”

“We’ve had a lot of somber talks about it and deep conversations and we hope through this we’re going to make something that will be truly groundbreaking this year,” Crews added. “We have an opportunity and we plan to use it in the best way possible.”

Andy Samberg Terry Crews Joe Lo Truglio Brooklyn Nine Nine Season 7

(Eddy Chen/NBC)

While Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a comedy, it has also had serious storylines, including a #MeToo episode in Season 6, and handled them appropriately.

The NBC series isn’t the only one with a writers’ room discussing the ongoing events and the impact on storylines. The ABC drama The Rookie “will address and not ignore the conversations around policing,” ABC Entertainment’s President Karey Burke revealed.