Keep up with your favorite shows... delivered to your inbox! Offers may be subject to change without notice. News came last week that due to the coronavirus pandemic shut downs, part of the season 7 finale of NBC's The Blacklist will be seen in a non … Copyright © 2020 NTVB Media, Inc., All Rights Reserved, 'The Blacklist' Star Diego Klattenhoff on 'Emotional' Ressler-Centric Episode, Worth Watching: Netflix Says 'Death to 2020,' Fox's 'Masked Dancer,' 'Shameless' Hall of Shame, Restaurants 'Hustle' to Survive, 'How I Met Your Mother,' 'Frasier' & More New Year's TV Episodes to Watch on Hulu, Is It Business as Usual in the 'Prodigal Son' Season 2 Premiere? By Philiana Ng‍ 11:31 AM PDT, May 5, 2020 . Jon Bokenkamp: Oh, yeah. A rogues’ gallery of bad guys. © Copyright 2020 Meredith Corporation. The title of this hybrid episode is “The Kazanijan Brothers.” It will serve as the finale and will conclude the story of this season. The Blacklist bosses on Liz's 'dark' decision and that big choice in the season finale. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. (PHOTOS). Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. So we were constantly looking at shots, giving notes, trying to find the look of the show — I’m in Nebraska, John and the editors are in L.A., the animators are in London and Atlanta, the actors are all over the place. The Blacklist is getting crafty in response to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down production. Raymond Reddington has always been an animated guy — but The Blacklist is about to take that literally. Executive producer Jon Bokenkamp tells TV Insider all about it. They both need Liz. 'Sabrina' Cast Teases the Tumultuous Final Season (VIDEO). How about complete the finale with animation. The Blacklist season 7 finale airs Friday, May 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. As executive producers Jon Bokenkamp and John Why Blacklist Season 7's Cartoon Ending Didn't Work. So to ensure a complete episode, animated sequences were created to fill the gaps of all the missing scenes. We really worked around the clock. Did you have to rewrite the story to fit into the animation mode? 'The Blacklist' recap: Never trust a rich Robin Hood. The drama’s makeshift Season 7 finale (airing Friday, May … The Blacklist joins Pop TV's One Day at a Time in extending its season using animation. You can watch it … Will Liz have to choose between trusting Katarina and her protector Reddington (James Spader)? 'Bridgerton' Couples: Who's Together at the End of the Netflix Series? Originally, we thought we could play the episode like an old radio show — put the image of a radio up on the screen, and people at home could gather around and listen to the episode. The Blacklist was so close — just five days short — to finishing up Season 7 before production was shut down due to COVID-19.. What was the NBC drama to do? Let us know what you think in the comments below. They both hope they can trust her. Producers got creative when filming of the … By … The season was originally set to contain 22 episodes. Then I wondered if we could animate what we didn’t shoot. But that got us thinking. UPDATED, 3:05 PM: NBC has released a trailer for Friday’s hybrid live action/animated season 7 finale episode of The Blacklist. A scene would be worked on by animators in London. Sony and NBC took a leap of faith on this concept without knowing how the final product would look. The actors all found a quiet place in their homes to record their lines. The Blacklist's Season 7 finale airs Friday, May 15 at 8/7c on NBC. ... 'The Blacklist' Season 7 Finale Will Be Partially Animated Due to Coronavirus Shutdown What can you tell us about the season finale story? Check out the new The Blacklist S07E19 exclusive sneak peek starring Megan Boone! A strange thing happened to “ The Blacklist ”: the pandemic cut Season 7 short — from 22 to 19 episodes — including work on the momentous finale, “The … The Blacklist Season 7 Finale Recap: A Very Animated Liz Chooses A Side The Blacklist rarely gets credit for its weirdness, but maybe this episode, the Season 7 finale, … The seventh season of the American crime thriller television series The Blacklist was ordered on March 11, 2019. https://ew.com/tv/the-blacklist-season-7-finale-animated-coronavirus-shutdown We really did have people in all sorts of time zones working simultaneously. Liz’s [Megan Boone] mother Katarina Rostova [Laila Robins] has re-emerged with some very real information about Reddington and why he entered Liz’s life in the first place. NBC's The Blacklist aired its season 7 finale this past week with a hybrid format, crossing between live-action scenes and graphic-novel style animation. They typically have months to work on a single scene or sequence. The Blacklist Airing Partially Animated Season 7 Finale Due to Coronavirus James Spader and Megan Boone will be partially animated to finish out The Blacklist season. Terrible idea. The actors were all great sports. The Blacklist was so close — just five days short — to finishing up Season 7 before production was shut down due to COVID-19. So we did a gut check. I know nothing about animation, I had no idea what we were getting into. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all live-action Hollywood productions back in March, NBC's The Blacklist was left without a Season 7 finale. We had five weeks to do 20 minutes of footage. We decided we could try and get it finished, despite the time crunch. Zee Hatley, our post supervisor, arranged to have microphones sent to the actors where they were quarantined. The Blacklist season 7 finale airs May 15 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. The hybrid episode, titled "The Kazanijan Brothers," will serve as the finale for the shortened season, which was originally intended to run 22 episodes. To complete the episode, stars James Spader, Megan Boone, and their castmates recorded audio at home, with the rest of the episode also being animated and edited remotely. The three have been heading toward quite a collision, and it appears we'll see some of it play out in animated form. A reflection of James Spader, as seen in the season finale of “The Blacklist.” After the pandemic stopped production, the show used animation to complete the episode. Season 7 of The Blacklist ended with a creative live-action/cartoon hybrid episode due to the coronavirus lockdown, but it didn't quite work. Wherever the finale leaves the characters, fans can look forward to more of Red’s shenanigans, as NBC has renewed The Blacklist for an eighth season. The Blacklist Airing Partially Animated Season 7 Finale Due to Coronavirus James Spader and Megan Boone will be partially animated to finish out The Blacklist season. An animated Raymond "Red" Reddington ( James Spader ) and a very unexpected choice made by FBI agent Elizabeth Keen ( Megan Boone )! Get an exclusive sneak peek at The Blacklist's Season 7 finale, which will blend comic book style animation with live-action after filming was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than ever, Liz now finds herself stuck exactly where she did not want to be — between these two parental figures. Spoilers for 'The Blacklist' Season 7 Episode 19 'The Kazanjian Brothers' 'The Blacklist' Season 7 just did what very few in television history have been able to achieve: a very gritty, darker than usual, graphic novel-esque animated season finale. The last completed episode of a planned 22 episode season was episode 18 which could have served as a season finale if necessary. Any kind that we could get done in time! Later in the day, we’d do the same thing with an animation team in Atlanta. They do these great big sequences for tentpole movies. The Blacklist Bosses Explain How the Animated Season 7 Finale Came to Be Liam Mathews 5/15/2020. The Kazanjian Brothers (Sony Pictures Television). Sony Pictures Television. Rather than … James Spader as Raymond “Red” Reddington in ‘The Blacklist’ season 7 episode 19 (Photo by: Sony Pictures Television) NBC’s The Blacklist shut down production early on season seven in New York as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold of the state. While Liz was not pleased with how her mother chose to scheme her way back into her life, she has since teamed up with her to get the upper hand — and some long-awaited info — on Red. However, he noted: "It's possible that if we knew how much work it took to do an animated half of this episode, we might well have not come up with the idea." What develops in this last episode, and how it propels us going forward, is something we’ve been working toward for years now. One of our former writers, Nicole Phillips, had written over a dozen comics for The Blacklist. The Blacklist EP Reveals How the Show Pulled Off Its Half-Animated Season Finale — Plus, Grade the Episode By Rebecca Iannucci / May 15 2020, 5:59 PM PDT Courtesy of NBC I really respect them taking the chance. To close out its seventh season, the NBC crime drama will employ a combination of live-action footage from the partially filmed 19th episode and graphic-novel-style animation. On Friday May 15, 2020 NBC aired the Season 7 finale of The Blacklist, and it took creative guts and a herculean effort to do so because production shut down due … Those audio tracks were then sent to L.A. where the performances were stitched together. The season premiered on NBC on Friday, October 4, 2019 at 8.00 p.m. The choice before her is not an easy one. You can imagine our cast hiding in linen closets and pantries trying to record their lines on their iPhones. Slightly. 'The Blacklist' Season 7 Finale Will Be Partially Animated Due to Coronavirus Shutdown. Realizing that we had to modify this episode to serve as our season finale, we had an opportunity to make changes to the scenes that had yet to be animated. There’s a pretty seismic shift on the horizon. What type of animation were you looking to do? Katarina and Reddington are hellbent on destroying each other. Tonally, we knew we wanted the animation to match the dark, criminal-filled world of The Blacklist, and we used the comics as inspiration, but beyond that it was a bit of improvisation. We kicked around the idea of shooting those comics, using the images and likeness of the characters to fill out the scenes we hadn’t shot. Due to widespread industry shutdowns resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, the show wasn't able to complete filming on the final episode for the season, titled "The Kazanjian Brothers." This … What Happened: The Blacklist wasn't finished filming what turned out to be its Season 7 finale when production was forced to close. “The Kazanjin Brothers” drew a ton of reaction on social media when it … The Blacklist, Season 7 Finale, Friday, May 15, 8/7c, NBC. Yes. After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down production mid-episode, 'The Blacklist' crafted a Season 7 finale by combining live-action and animated scenes. First thing in the morning, [fellow executive producer] John Eisendrath and myself would watch that scene and give our notes so London could make the changes overnight. Credit: What was the NBC drama to do? The Blacklist Season 7 Episode 19, the unintentional season finale, will be a blend of live-action scenes and animation, and it will come as a graphic-novel style animation. The Blacklist has a lot of graphic novel-like elements. The Blacklist goes animated for season 7 finale amid production shutdown. 10 funny mockumentaries to remind us about the absurdity of life, Family-friendly Halloween films for boos big and small. The Season 7 finale of The Blacklist was something else. “The Blacklist” is the latest show to explore a creative solution to the coronavirus production shutdown. “The Blacklist” is getting more animated for its Season 7 finale. Our editors in LA would very quickly assemble the shots. 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