Fear not, ODaaT fans, thanks to news coming out of this year’s Vulture Festival, we officially know the timeline for everyone’s favorite “Netflix-turned-POP-series” reboot. March 2020.
After season three premiered on Netflix earlier this year, many ODaaT fans were disappointed and saddened to learn that Netflix had elected not to move forward with any additional new seasons of the series. The modern reboot of the Norman Lear sitcom featured a mostly LatinX cast and told stories with a progressive bent, ranging from colorism, immigration, veteran’s issues, mental health, LGBT issues, and addiction. It picked up a passionate fanbase, especially among younger women loving women (wlw) to the point that the show’s producers and stars (Isabella Gomez and Sheridan Pierce) were featured on panels at the Las Vegas wlw-centered convention, ClexaCon.
Once the cancellation was announced both fans and the show went to work trying to find ways to save their show. The television landscape, for all of the gains in recent years still remains predominantly white, so the loss of a primarily LatinX-centric show would have been a devastating blow for representation on a number of levels. Thankfully, Sony’s streaming channel, POP, ultimately emerged with the rights for a 13 episode fourth season.
While showrunner Mike Royce declined to tease season four’s story details at the festival (due to upcoming meetings with Sony), the cast and crew present did veer into politics. Specifically the upcoming 2020 presidential election in the United States. When Vulture moderator Maria Elena Fernandez asked Rita Moreno who Lydia would be voting for now that she’s officially a US citizen, Moreno replied with a “Not him. Definitely not him.”
