Three’s Blacklist Delayed Until 2021

Three has pushed back the season eight premiere of The Blacklist to next year.

The series was meant to resume next week, 10 days after its return to NBC.

But Three has opted to hold the season until 2021, so it can run all the episodes without interruption.

In the US, the show’s expected to take a break soon because of Covid-19 disruptions to its shooting schedule.

S7 was cut short because of the epidemic, leading to the season finale being animated.

Said TV Guide of the S8 premiere:

The new season — which won’t be animated — will pick up where the abbreviated seventh season left off, with Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) allying with her ruthless ex-KGB agent mother Katarina Rostova (Laila Robins) against Raymond Reddington (James Spader) and Rostova’s father Dominic Wilkinson (Ron Raines, taking over the role originated by the late Brian Dennehy), who are keeping secrets about Reddington’s true identity and why he came into Liz’s life that Liz needs to know.

And Liz, who learned deviousness and amorality from Reddington, will do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if it means turning her life upside down and causing a lot of pain for her loved ones.

Not even Red knows how much Liz has turned against him, which puts him in the rare position of not having all the information.

Unlike many other shows, The Blacklist will not be dealing with the pandemic in its storyline, TV Guide reports.

“We feel like each one of these episodes should be an hour to step away from the nightmare that has been Covid and sort of a bit of escapism, hopefully,” creator Jon Bokenkamp said.

He also told Entertainment Weekly of the start to S8: “The truth is, these next three episodes were our last three episodes of season 7. We’ve reworked them in a way that they’re now the launch of the season.”