‘This Is Us’ Renewed for 3 More Seasons in Rare Move by NBC

This Is Us fans have been curiously waiting for a renewal announcement from NBC, and the one they received on Sunday was quite the surprise.

NBC has officially ordered three more seasons of This Is Us, in what is considered a rare move by any network or service.

This Is Us had previously been renewed for two seasons through the recently wrapped Season 3. That two-season order showed NBC’s confidence in the family drama, but this three-season order, which guarantees the show will run through Season 6, defies expectations.

It is unclear if Season 6 will serve as the final installment of the beloved series, but producers have previously hinted they have the show planned out for six seasons.

“In speaking purely about the characters’ stories, I think we’re in the middle of their stories,” creator Dan Fogelman told Entertainment Weekly after Season 3’s finale. “If you were in a movie theater, you’d be at the one-hour mark.”

“We aren’t just throwing things on TV to throw them on TV,” co-showrunner Isaac Aptaker told EW. “Whenever we make a decision, we know we have a plan in place… [W]e have a plan here, like a complicated, long novel. We know where it’s headed, and we hope to be doing it as long as people want us to do it.”

However, the stars of the series seem to want it to never end, or at least not in six seasons.

“We are keeping it open for right now,” Jack Pearson actor Milo Ventimiglia recently said on the Ellen DeGeneres Show. “Everybody wants more beyond that … Maybe there will be more. I don’t know.”

Regardless of how long the show lasts, the cast seems to be thrilled with the current three-season order, based on their social media posts.

This Is Us is currently between seasons, but past episodes can be watched on Hulu.