Shonda Rhimes- 'Scandal' Ending: 'There Are No Rules,' Says Showrunner
Scandal Was Always A 'Finite' Story, Says Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes says "Scandal" is ending, and she already knows how the political drama and Olivia Pope's team of "fixers" will finish their run. The showrunner has other long-running series under her belt, but "Scandal" has a "finite story" to be told based on the world in which it's set, she revealed.
Shonda Rhimes talked "Scandal" to NPR, explaining that the show definitely has a scheduled run that she already has figured out.
"I feel like there is a finite amount of Scandal to be told," she said. "So I know what the end of Scandal will be, and I feel really good about that. And I can see where the end point is. And I don't think I'm going to change that. … I know how long I think it will be. But we'll see."
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Rhimes compared it to "Grey's Anatomy," which has been going on for around 10 years. Although she had planned the end of the medical drama, she simply kept it around- but the same thing probably won't happen for "Scandal."
"I knew the end of Grey's Anatomy, and then we kept going, so that I finally just had to write that and move past it," she explained. "Who knows, at this point, how long that show's going to go? It's going to go as long as I feel interested in what happens to those characters."
"Scandal" is in its third season, but the political landscape far from mirrors our own: where we are critical and sometimes cynical towards our government, the America in the show is far more trusting. That will change, said the showrunner.
"In the world of the show, [our] America sees Washington as this fairy-tale-beautiful place, and everybody who works there is really helping keep that illusion alive," Rhimes told "Morning Edition." "But they're all very much aware that with that peeled away, they're all just monsters set adrift in a world where there are no rules."
