As our nation continues to reckon with police brutality against Black Americans, Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Terry Crews said that the show will be altering its upcoming season to reflect the changing times. Speaking with Deadline, Crews said that showrunner Dan Goor had four episodes for season eight “ready to go,†but when Black Lives Matter protests began, “they threw them in the trash. We have to start over. Right now we don’t know which direction it’s going to go in.†He also said that the cast â — who recently donated $100,000 to the National Bail Fund network â — has had “somber talks and deep conversations†about starring in a police sitcom and how they hope to “make something that will be truly groundbreaking†with the new season. “We have an opportunity here,†Crews added, “and we plan to use it in the best way possible.â€
While Brooklyn Nine-Nine has mostly eschewed dealing with race relations in its precinct, an episode in season four defied that: “Moo Moo,†where Crews’s sergeant character gets racially profiled and harassed by a white cop while out after dark. “The difficulty was that our guys are cops, and we portray the cops as good guys, and so it’s very difficult,†Goor previously explained about the episode. “This is an episode or an area that I wanted to explore, I think, as early as season one or season two. But I just had so much trouble finding a way in and then figuring out exactly how to pull it off.†Crews and his B99 co-star, Andre Braugher, both gave notes on the script.