'Shameless': Showtime Exec Dishes on Emmy Rossum's Possible Return for Final Season

When Emmy Rossum decided to leave Shameless, executive producer John Wells did not kill her character, Fiona Gallagher, off. That means she could always return and since Showtime announced the show will end with Season 11, the idea of her returning resurfaced. Showtime co-president of entertainment Gary Levine said it is possible, but it is too early to tell.

"Too early to say," Levine told Deadline Monday. "She would be welcomed with open arms but Emmy doesn't owe us anything. She did great for the show as the show did great for her, and it was a very amicable parting. So if she surprises us, it would be lovely."

Rossum's final episode was the Season 9 episode "Found," which aired back in March 2019. Fiona figured out that her siblings no longer needed her around as a maternal figure and, after Max (Neal Bledsoe) brought out her interest in a plot of land, she had no reason to stay in Chicago. After giving Debbie (Emma Kinney) half of her $100,000 check, she left her family behind and has not appeared on the show since.

On Monday, Showtime announced Season 11 will be Shameless' final season. It will air this summer, even though Season 10 is still airing.

"We had such a strong fourth quarter (with Shameless and Ray Donovan). Traditionally our shows slide towards the end of the year just because of production and everything else," Levine said of the surprising decision to air the last batch of episodes so soon. "We really wanted the summer to be strong, we wanted to be able to use Shameless as a lead-in for Of Becoming a God in Central Florida, which is a show we really love. Shameless feels like a compatible lead-in and brings a big and compatible audience to it."

Shameless will end its run as the longest-running Showtime original series. Coincidentally, the U.K. series the show was inspired by, also titled Shameless, ran 11 seasons as well.

"Shameless has been such a great performer for us, and we just felt like, 11 seasons is a big fat number," Levine explained to Deadline. "John and his people refresh it each year, and it still gets a huge audience for us as well as for that streaming services that runs our reruns (Netflix). We just felt it was time, and we also liked the idea of giving John and Co. a chance to end it well, to be able to aim for that landing."

The current cast is expected to return for the final season. William H. Macy, Jeremy Allen White, Ethan Cutkosky, Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey, Emma Kenney, Cameron Monaghan, Noel Fisher, Chistian Isaiah and Kate Miner will all be back.

Rossum's schedule could make her return difficult though. She is now working on Angelyne, a limited series about the Los Angeles billboard diva for NBCUniversal's Peacock streaming platform. Rossum's husband, Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail, is an executive producer.

Photo credit: Getty Images