Who Will Return for The Good Wife's Final Episodes? Is a Spinoff Already in the Works?

Robert and Michelle King reveal details about the final nine episodes

By Chris Harnick Feb 08, 2016 7:58 PMTags
The Good WifeCBS

The Good Wife says goodbye this May, but not without welcoming some familiar faces back to the series. In addition to the previously announced returns of Margo Martindale and Carrie Preston, The Good Wife well feature the return of Gary Cole…and maybe more.

"Yes, a lot," Robert King said when asked about the potential for returning cast members during a conference call about the end of The Good Wife. "Can I just say we're in the works right now trying to get a few and we will know, I would say within the next week. What we wanted to do is see even some people you probably haven't even seen for two years, like Robyn [Jess Weixler] and so on. See where they have kind of ended up and landed."

Don't fret, this isn't going to be a parade of guest stars. "It's not going to be exactly the end of Seinfeld in that way, but we just kind of want to get a little bit of check in with some of the characters we've seen.

So who can it be? "Some of these we want to be surprises," Robert said.

As for returning series regulars like Archie Panjabi and Josh Charles, well don't hold your breath. Charles' Will Gardner was gunned down in season five and Panjabi's Kalinda Sharma left the show at the end of season six, going on the run.

The ghost of Will Gardner still sort of looms, but this isn't Game of Thrones. Dead is dead.

"Alas, Will Gardner is dead, so that's sort of problematic right there," Michelle King said.

"The only thing we'd say about the Josh character, Will, is he weighs heavily on the narrative even if we don't have him in person and that seems to be something we haven't figured out too, so…I'm trying to leave you empty answers…," Robert added.

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Regarding Kalinda and Alicia reconnecting one last time, Michelle King flat out said, "No, that's not our expectation." Robert noted Panjabi has moved on to other projects, including an ABC pilot called The Jury. Still, a reporter pushed more regarding seeing Panjabi again.

"Again, we really try to follow what makes sense for the characters," Michelle said. "Kalinda went off deliberately to disappear and we're honoring that choice. It wouldn't make any sense for her to come back."

As for the future of The Good Wife, well, there isn't really one. When asked about spinoffs, the Kings revealed nothing concrete has taken shape. "At this point, nothing's off the table," Michelle said. "There's nothing formal. Sure, maybe, we're not saying no to anything at this point."

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"What would be appealing about it, is there are all these fun characters that you maybe didn't see as much as you wanted," Robert added, citing Carrie Preston's Elsbeth Tascioni and Martha Plimpton's Patti Nyholm. "What would be fun is if you could find a way to spinoff an ensemble that maybe wasn't at the center stage of The Good Wife, just because all of those characters we wished we had more time with. We wished they were regulars and you could explore other lives."

The Kings also praised CBS for letting the show end the way they had always intended it to end. After surviving the initial 13-episode order of season one, Robert and Michelle said they mapped the story of Alicia Florrick out and always envisioned it as a seven-season tale.

"What you're seeing in the last nine episodes is, if it were a movie, it'd be the third act. Well, actually, this last year has been, but just trying to somehow find completion in a form that tends to rebel against competition which is broadcast, network TV which really does want to be an ongoing structure," Robert said.
 
The final nine episodes kick off on Sunday, Feb. 14. The Kings are working on the 18th episode of the 22-episode final season with the series finale scheduled for Sunday, May 8 at 9 p.m. on CBS.