Superstore bosses talk incorporating COVID-19 into season 6, Amy's delayed exit
Greg Gayne/NBC
When America Ferrera announced in spring 2020 that she was leaving Superstore, fans were devastated. And when season 5 ended just shy of her farewell episode due to COVID-19, well, you can see where this is going. But not only is Ferrera returning for the season 6 premiere, Amy’s goodbye has been postponed … to episode 2.
"We realized we wanted to see how our characters dealt with the early days of the pandemic: the uncertainty and changing information, the panicking hoarders, being called 'essential workers' but not really being treated as essential," say showrunners Jonathan Green and Gabe Miller via email. "Superstore has always been a show that tries to reflect what real people are dealing with in the real world, and COVID has obviously had a huge impact on the daily lives and work of store employees. So we knew early on that COVID would be an important part of the season, in big ways and small. Like real stores, everything will look and function a little differently. It’s an opportunity to put a spotlight on a group of people on the frontlines who often go underappreciated."
As for how that impacts Amy, Green and Miller continue, "We decided the premiere would take us through those early months with time jumps, and the virus delaying Amy and Jonah’s [Ben Feldman] move to California, and then we’ll give America a proper send-off in the second episode, which will be Amy’s last day."
For that episode, the showrunners revealed they were able to keep several scenes they originally had in the season 5 finale — though the story about Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) and Mateo (Nico Santos) throwing a huge music festival in the store's parking lot was nixed for obvious reasons. But when it comes to Amy's goodbye, the Green and Miller say fans should expect Glenn (Mark McKinney) and Dina (Lauren Ash) to take it the hardest. After all, Dina still hasn’t gotten over the loss of her birds.
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