If you were hoping for AMC to commission a buddy series featuring the tales of Stan Rizzo and Michael Ginsberg once Mad Men went off the air, or wanted Bobby and Sally: The College Years to find a place on the network, you may be out of luck. In an interview with Deadline, Mad Men‘s tight-lipped creator Matthew Weiner revealed that once the show’s final episode airs in 2015, the end is set in stone. In other words, it is not pulling a Breaking Bad, which has spinoff Better Call Saul coming in November 2014.
As to where he goes from the offices of Sterling Cooper, Weiner explains that he has nothing else planned for his post-Mad Men career.
“For me, I need to take a break. That’s really what I’m planning to do,” he says. “It’s scary because I’m stepping off a moving treadmill but I think it’s the best way to not just keep doing more of the same.”
Weiner did reveal that he is currently at work on the final episode, which means he will have written or co-written each of the season finales. Mad Men is set to resume its final seven episodes in 2015, and due to overwhelming acclaim for this past week’s episode (including our review of “Waterloo”), fan excitement is through the roof.
“Waterloo” will likely go down as one of the drama’s best episodes, as it brought huge changes to Don’s, Peggy’s and all of the agency partners’ lives, even as they grappled with the death of patriarch Bert Cooper. As I said in my review, it was “a high-wire hour, full of superb acting and story turns both devastating and triumphant.” I’m sure that I’m not alone when I say that cannot wait for the show to return.
Tell us, what did you think of Mad Men‘s mid-season finale this past Sunday? Sound off below!