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This Is Why FX's 'Pose' Is Ending After Its Third Season

A triptych of photos from Pose

Show creator Steven Canals recently spoke about bringing the series to a close. 

MikelleStreet

There's always a reason.

Though we are all mourning the fact that Pose is coming to an end after the next season, series creator Steven Canals has spoken out on the reasoning behind the decision. While some on social media think that the show may have gotten canceled, Canals said in a recent press conference that this has been the plan since the beginning of the show. And while there had been writer's room conversations about how the team could expand the world of Pose, the decision was made that this was the best way to go.

"As a true lover of television, one of the things that has always frustrated me is when I am tuning in to a season of television and I can tell that the season just feels like filler," Canals, who is also an executive producer of the series, said. "And I think that the last thing I wanted to do to our audience was to create narrative simply for the sake of creating narrative, with no real intention. So, I could see there was the ending and I think we all agree that it just made sense for us to land the plane comfortably, as opposed to continue to give an audience story that just simply didn't have any really core intention or a real thrust towards specificity."

To wit, when Out went on set for the second season of the show, Ryan Murphy mapped out the end Canals mentioned -- in the press conference, Canals said they had long agreed where the show would end. Murphy told us the plot would come to a close in 1995-1996 when antiviral drugs were developed to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

"To me, the show has always been about the demolition of a community that refused to be silenced," Murphy said. "The show is really about a group of marginalized people saying, 'I have a right to be here.'" And while Canals said that the trajectory of the show, and its intention has altered with the induction of executive producer, director, and writer, Janet Mock, that ending point remains the same.

"It will not be and it will never be lost on me that alongside Janet Mock and Ryan Murphy, that for us this show was created by and for our community," Canals said in this week's press conference. "I hope that if nothing else, all of the folks out there who happen to be part of the LGBTQ+ community and all of those folks who happen to be Black and brown, that they always know that I and all of my collaborators and this wildly talented and beautiful cast, that we will always have your back, we will always see you, that we will always affirm you, that the work will always to be to honor you."

In the press conference, Canals also revealed that the show's final season was intended to answer the question of what happens when you get all the things you say you want, reflecting on the core characters stepping into the dreams they had for themselves at the show's start.

RELATED | Watch FX 'Pose's First Look for Finale Season With All the Plot Lines

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Mikelle Street

Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.

Mikelle is the former editorial director of digital for PrideMedia, guiding digital editorial and social across Out, The Advocate, Pride.com, Out Traveler, and Plus. After starting as a freelancer for Out in 2013, he joined the staff as Senior Editor working across print and digital in 2018. In early 2021 he became Out's digital director, marking a pivot to content that centered queer and trans stories and figures, exclusively. In September 2021, he was promoted to editorial director of PrideMedia. He has written cover stories on Ricky Martin, Miss Fame, Nyle DiMarco, Jeremy O. Harris, Law Roach, and Symone.