When will 'The Blacklist' Season 8 return? Elizabeth Keen could take down Red, who's probably dying
The NBC procedural 'The Blacklist' first debuted in September 2013 and it comes from creator Jon Bokenkamp. The crime drama now has seven seasons under its belt — Season 7 debuted in October 2019. The series has garnered a huge fan base and also won a Primetime Emmy Award in 2014 for Outstanding Stunt Coordination for a Drama Series, Miniseries or Movie, and an ASCAP Award for Top TV Series. It has also been nominated for two Golden Globes — one in 2014 and another in 2015 — for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama (James Spader). Here is what we know about the upcoming Season 8 of the series.
Where we left off
The Season 7 finale saw Elizabeth Keen aka Liz (Megan Boone) choose her mother Katarina Rostova (Laila Robins) as her ally in order to help her stop the menace that is the Townsend Directive. Raymond Reddington aka Red (James Spader), who can actually stop it, isn't willing to do so. We don't know if Liz's loyalty will end up biting her in the a**, but we do know that the season had ended abruptly due to interference in the production. We also saw Red experiencing health issues, but we don't know exactly what it is yet. Not to mention, someone needs to take over the criminal empire he has left behind, should he succumb to anything.
The Season 7 finale had live-action scenes along with animated ones and here a few things that went down.
— Dominic Wilkinson (Brian Dennehy) seems to have gained back consciousness after he was shot in the showdown with Katarina Rostova's (Laila Robins) loyal people.
— Liz's relationship with Red seems to be a bit strayed considering she almost had him executed.
— Red continues to stay quiet about his illness and was actually saved by Katarina.
And, of course, we still have no idea about Red's real identity.
What we'd like to see
Since Season 7 was not supposed to end the way it did, John Eisendrath revealed during the 'The Blacklist' Comic-Con that Season 8 will make up for it. "This year, we have all the big stuff that we were unable to finish at the end of the last season that is going to start this season," he said. "So, the next season, Season 8, starts in a much more heightened and dramatic place than normal seasons do because we are gonna tell the story that we were unable to tell at the end of last season."
According to reports, the relationship between Raymond Reddington aka Red (James Spader), and Elizabeth Keen aka Liz (Megan Boone) will be explored more. With Red having mentored Liz with everything that she has now become an expert in, we might see her use all that she has learned against Red. It has also been revealed that while the regular cast will be part of the upcoming season, there will be another regular added to the season. Agent Alina Park played by Laura Sohn will now be a part of the main cast replacing Samar Navabi (Mozhan Marno) who bid goodbye to the team back in Season 6.
Via Comic-Con@Home 2020, Diego Klattenhoff, who plays the role of FBI task force agent Donald Ressler, revealed that the tension between his character and Liz would come to a peak. "I think it’s inevitable. I think we’ve gone through so much together over the years that obviously I mean who wouldn’t trust me? So, if she comes to me and reveals her secrets..." he said.
When is it returning?
According to reports 'The Blacklist' Season 8 is set to premiere on November 13, 2020, but due to the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting productions, we should expect a possible delay. There has been no news on the fact that the premiere date has been moved as of yet. But if production does get delayed, we would expect that Season 8 of the NBC procedural would drop the latest at the start of 2021. But for now, catch 'The Blacklist' Season 8 on November 13, 2020, at 8/7c on NBC. Season 7 of the series is available to stream on Netflix.