All sweet things must come to an end, as Ava DuVernay announces that Queen Sugar will have one final season in 2022. The bittersweet news comes days after an extraordinary panel at Vulture Festival where the cast showed the sixth-season finale ahead of tonight’s premiere for a lucky audience. DuVernay spoke to Deadline about her upcoming plans for the final season, stating that she already knows “what the end [of the series] will be.†She also called the longevity of the show “a radical act†and how “it’s a testament to every single pair of hands that touched it, and [she is] so proud of that.†During the Queen Sugar panel, Nicholas L. Ashe praised DuVernay’s leadership on the show and her commitment to diversity: “We have all women directors on Queen Sugar. That’s so amazing. And now I find myself as an actor, when I get an audition for something that wants to explore my Blackness or my queerness, let’s look at this creative team. Let’s look at these executive producers and see if it’s gonna be diluted — or if this can be as true to what I know the experience to be so that we’re not perpetuating something ugly and smaller than the fullness of what we are.â€
Based on Natalie Baszile’s novel of the same name, Queen Sugar is about three Black siblings (Rutina Wesley, Dawn-Lyen Gardner, and Kofi Siriboe) who must deal with the aftermath of their father’s death in rural Louisiana. The show has won two NAACP awards and holds a 93 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The sixth-season finale premiered Tuesday night on OWN.