‘Orange Is The New Black’ To End With Season 7 On Netflix

UPDATED with quotes: Netflix’s Emmy-winning women’s-prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black will end with the upcoming seventh season.

The streaming network just announced the cancellation of the Lionsgate-produced series on social media.

“After seven seasons, it’s time to be released from prison, said series creator Jenji Kohan. “I will miss all the badass ladies of Litchfield and the incredible crew we’ve worked with. My heart is orange but fade to black.”

“During production of Season 1, everyone involved with Orange Is The New Black felt like we knew a special secret we couldn’t wait to share with the world. Since then, we have laughed, cried, raged, and roared with the women of Litchfield, and every moment spent with them felt like borrowed time — too good to last forever,” said Vice President of Original Content for Netflix Cindy Holland. “We will be sad to say goodbye but we will definitely be going out on a high. We are grateful to Jenji Kohan and her groundbreaking vision; to her supremely talented team of writers and producers; and to a once-in-a-lifetime cast and crew for creating a truly special work of art that has inspired conversations and connected audiences around the world.”

“Orange is the New Black has profoundly impacted popular culture worldwide, and has played a prominent role in building Lionsgate into a platform-defining brand,” said Lionsgate Television Group Chairman Kevin Beggs. “Thanks to the brilliance of Jenji Kohan, the mastery of the creative and production team, the transcendent cast, and our tremendous partnership with Netflix, the series has surpassed our expectations year after year. With great pride, we are working together to bring this landmark series to a triumphant, satisfying close with the upcoming seventh season.”

Created by Kohan, based on Piper Kerman’s memoir Orange Is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison, the series has received widespread acclaim since its 2013 premiere, becoming Netflix’s most-watched original series. For its first season, the series earned 12 Primetime Emmy nominations including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, winning three. It went on to earn an additional four Emmy noms in Season 2, including Outstanding Drama Series, and win for Uzo Aduba for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. It is the first series to score Emmy nominations in both comedy and drama categories. The series also has received six Golden Globe Award nominations, six Writers Guild of America Award nominations, a Producers Guild of America Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award.

The series had received a three-season renewal ahead of its Season 4 premiere in 2016. As part of the deal, creator and showrunner Kohan will stay on through Season 7.

OITNB followed the inmates of Litchfield Minimum Security Prison, with Season 6 seeing many of the main cast move to the Maximum Security Prison mentioned frequently in the series.

The series stars Taylor Schilling as Piper, Aduba, Kate Mulgrew, Laura Prepon, Laverne Cox, Dascha Polanco, Danielle Brooks, Selenis Leyva, Taryn Manning, Yael Stone, Jackie Cruz, Lea DeLaria, Adrienne C. Moore, Elizabeth Rodriguez Michael Harney and Nick Sandow.

Season 7 is slated to premiere in summer 2019.