Ernie Hudson Set to Return for Final Season of Netflix's 'Grace and Frankie' (Exclusive)

07/01/2020 11:00 am EDT

After the events from last season, the final chapter of Netflix's raunchy comedy, Grace and Frankie, is setting itself up to be one heck of a memorable swan song for fans as they anticipate the last episodes with Season 7, set to debut sometime next year. As one of the streamer's longest-running comedies, the show about two women navigating the circumstances surrounding their partners who leave them for each other has been a fan-favorite among watchers.

But as the showrunners have remained tightlipped on what viewers can expect or who is returning with lead stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Ernie Hudson tells PopCulture.com exclusively in our series PopCulture @ Home that he is undoubtedly returning for another dose of laughs. "Well, I'm told I'm going to be in it, and then we got shut down. So, I have no idea what that does to the storyline, or when they'll go back," Hudson said. "But I just love Lily Tomlin who plays my sometimes girlfriend, and Jane Fonda — and yeah, I'd love to, I mean, to do the show, to do more episodes and we'll see how it goes."

Hudson also exclusively shares that he "talked to Marta Kauffman, who says the character will be coming back" for the final season. "But then like I said, everybody ended up getting shut down, and who knows what it's going to look like when we come back."

Grace and Frankie are among several shows that shut down over COVID-19 concerns, including Hudson's BET+ series, The Family Business, where he executive produces the Black family crime drama. With Season 2 premiering July 2 on BET's premiere streaming network and debuting only six new episodes shot before the federal shutdown, there are currently no plans for heading back into the studio with the cast and crew just yet. But Hudson shares in our exclusive sit-down that he and the team are very aware of measures they must take to ensure the health and safety of everyone involved.

"As one of the producers, that's the thing we're faced with now. I mean, how do we go back to work safely? We certainly want to protect the people," he said. "We had an incident where one of the actors, just before we shut down, was infected and that was a scare because we didn't know it at the time and that's one of the hard problems with this virus is, nobody seems to be able to give us anything definite about it. Everything is suggestions."

Hudson adds how the city, the county and state all have their guidelines while the union has their own. Still, it all boils down to one thing: "How do we make that work in a way that's affordable and it's a real threat to low budget, or independent productions because some of the things that may be required is going to be very costly," he said. "Right now, we're still trying to figure it out and hopefully within the next month or so, we will. But as of now, nobody is going back to work that I'm aware of."

Grace and Frankie's Seasons 1 through 6 are currently available for streaming on Netflix. Season 7 does not yet have a premiere date. The Family Business Season 1 is now streaming on BET+ with Season 2 premiering its first six episodes on July 2. For more of the latest in TV, movies and all your favorite streaming shows, keep it locked to PopCulture.com!

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