The next episode of The Blacklist is going to be a bombshell. Megan Boone, who plays the female main alongside James Spader, will leave the NBC show after eight seasons, according to sources. In the forthcoming Season 8 finale, she’ll make her farewell appearance as a recurring character.
Megan Boone leaving The Blacklist
Megan Boone’s departure was decided early on, well before The Blacklist‘s Season 9 renewal in January. As a result, the writers were able to create this season’s narrative for her character, Elizabeth “Liz” Keen, as her final chapter. According to sources, the decision was mutual, and Boone is already planning her next move.
NBC and Sony Pictures Television, which produces The Blacklist alongside Universal Television, did not respond to requests for comment. Spader, Diego Klattenhoff, and Harry Lennix are the remaining original cast members on the program now that Boone has left.
Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) in The Blacklist
Liz’s journey from a wide-eyed rookie FBI agent to a fugitive on the loose who has accepted her evil side has been completed in Season 8. Liz was shown to be No. 1 on the Blacklist in Episode 4. Liz turned the tables on her old mentor, Raymond “Red” Reddington (Spader), after witnessing the murder of her mother, Katarina.
The last two episodes of Season 8, fittingly titled “Nachalo” and “Konets,” Russian for “Beginning” (Начало) and “End” (Конец), will bring their stormy relationship to a conclusion.
“We’re going to go back to the very beginning and unpack answers to eight years’ worth of questions.,” The Blacklist creator Jon Bokenkamp promised in a recent interview with TVInsider. There is only you, me, and the truth,” Spader’s Red says in the somber NBC trailer, while Megan Boone’s Liz asks, “Tell me, who are you?” Red confessed to Liz at the end of the most recent episode that he is N-13, the elusive spy she has been searching for. The series will now reveal why Red first appeared in Liz’s life eight years ago.
Megan Boone did not appear in eight episodes this season as part of the Liz-as-fugitive narrative, prompting worries about her future on the show. As Liz emerged from hiding in the April 23 episode, Megan Boone reappeared.
Megan Boone’s career
For Megan Boone, The Blacklist was a watershed event in her career. When she was cast as the female lead opposite three-time Emmy winner Spader in the pilot, the young actress had only done one program as a series regular, NBC’s short-lived Law & Order: LA.
The persona procedural was an instant sensation, catapulting Boone to stardom on television. Having lost some rating steam as it was shifted about the NBC schedule, The Blacklist has remained a strong performer, and the program has attracted a worldwide audience thanks to its off-network partnership with Netflix.
Megan Boone Season 1
Megan Boone Season 2
