As Merlin fans know, it was recently announced that the TV series is coming to an end after five seasons. The last episode will be airing in a couple weeks in the UK.
The final season of Merlin debuts on Syfy on January 4th and the last episode is expected to air on March 29th here in the States.
I recently had the opportunity to talk with the show’s star, Colin Morgan, and I asked him about the possibility of a sixth season, if he’d be interested in taking part in a spin-off, if he felt satisfied by the finale, and what he’ll miss most about the show.
There was some information coming out of Comic-Con last year that a sixth season and movies were being considered. Did you know, going into season five, that it was going to be the final season?
Yeah, you know, if I’m honest, from the beginning we knew that it was only going to make five series. We had signed up for five. It was always the plan to do five series. So, we knew at the beginning of series four that five would be final one.
Do you know if there was there any truth to the possibility of a sixth season?
As actors, we always have to respect the wishes of the producers because they created the show. It’s their project and when we do publicity we have to respect what they’d like us to talk about so that’s what we did.
Sure. There’s been talk of possibly doing spin-off projects, and I don’t know how real this possibility is with the producers having left the company and moved on to other projects. If the circumstances were right though, would you be open to participating in something like that in some way?
Who knows. Never say never, because the show’s done so well and it has such an amazing following. The fifth season feels like such a right way to end it though. I think it’s such a strong ending. It’s the strongest the series has ever been. So, to continue it on, from an actor’s point of view, there’s a risk that I might not enjoy doing that. The risk that it might be something I don’t believe in like I believe in the rest of it. But I mean, who knows, if the opportunities present themselves.
Without giving anything away, do you like where the story ends up? Where your character ends up? Does it feel fitting?
Definitely. It’s all like I expected. You know, I wasn’t sure where it was exactly going to go and certainly when I read the final script, I was surprised about the story that they told and the way they told it. But, yeah, I think it’s 100% right. I think everyone will be really satisfied with it.
Right. Has it sunk in that you know that you’re not going back into production this time? Do you miss it?
There’s a lot of things that I’ll miss. I think the big part of what we’re all going to miss is all of the people who work on the show. Because it’s the same crew that we’ve had, really from the beginning, from day one a lot of them have been right from there. It’s the lot who’ve been with the show for many years. So, it’s the friends, it’s the people that you’re not gonna see everyday. That’s the big part of it because, at the end of the day, everyone worked so hard on the show. We work every day on it and there are people that you see and you develop a relationship with. So, I think that’s the biggest part of what I’ll miss.
In part two, I asked Colin about his character’s journey, something that he would have liked to have seen, another character he would have liked to have played and more. Click here for that.
What do you think? What will you miss about the Merlin TV series?
I absolutely loved Merlin and so far I have watched it 12 times. I have never been so moved by all of the performances and I am so sad that it has ended. I still cry as much each time I see it and I am 81 years old. Please bring it back! It was perfectly cast.
The ending showed Merlin walking and a semi truck passing him just led me to believe there would be more.
But thank you I am 70 and always at every chance watched it over and over. Thank you
“I think it’s 100% right. I think everyone will be really satisfied with it.” Boy was he wrong about that. Colin did a magnificent job portraying his character, but the ending essentially ruined the story in its entirety – that’s not his fault, that’s the fault of the writers. We never see anything that is built up to starting with the very first episode. Every touching seen, serious discussion, etc. that was so masterfully done at the time has now – to watch the series through again after that ending – literally is rendered meaningless – because those things will… Read more »
I totally agree. After watching the end, all I could do was sit and think…this doesn’t even make sense. Throughout the whole show it was Merlin’s destiny to protect Arthur and keep him alive and then he died anyway. So nothing of what the show was heading towards was accomplished. It was just cut off as if to say…” Ok, we’re tired of this now, let’s end it.”
So right I expected much more too
It was well written, well acted and YES I would most definitely like to see it come back. Perhaps with Merlin helping with the raising and training of Prince Arthur’s son!
Me and my wife just finished the series.. I cryed more than her.. I connected with the characters of the show.. I just wish it did not end at all.. Loved all of it tho.