Much like the song that became Candy’s (portrayed by The Root 100 honoree Angelica Ross) theme song, “Never Knew Love Like This Before” by Stephanie Mills, we never knew joy quite like Pose gave us. The breakout FX series is special.
In a press release sent to The Root on Friday morning, FX announced that Pose will be returning for its third and final season on May 2 at 10 p.m. ET/PT and will kick off with its first two episodes of the season (which will contain seven total episodes). Created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals, Pose stars MJ Rodriguez (Bianca), Indya Moore (Angel), Billy Porter (Pray Tell), Dominique Jackson (Elektra), Angelia Ross (Candy), Hailie Sahar (Lulu), Ryan Jamaal Swain (Damon), Dyllón Burnside (Ricky), Angel Bismark Curiel (Papi), Charlayne Woodard (Helena) and more.
The series was groundbreaking in many ways—from its mainstream media representation of LGBTQ+ community members to its historic accomplishments such as Billy Porter becoming the first openly gay man to win an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama series and Janet Mock becoming the first trans woman of color hired as a writer on a TV series as well as the first transgender woman of color to write and direct a TV episode.
More on Pose and its upcoming final season from the press release:
Pose is a drama spotlighting the legends, icons and ferocious house mothers of New York’s underground ball culture, a movement that first gained notice in the late 1980s. In this final season, it’s now 1994 and ballroom feels like a distant memory for Blanca who struggles to balance being a mother with being a present partner to her new love, and her latest role as a nurse’s aide. Meanwhile, as AIDS becomes the leading cause of death for Americans ages 25 to 44, Pray Tell contends with unexpected health burdens. Elsewhere, the emergence of a vicious new upstart house forces the House of Evangelista members to contend with their legacy.
The series finale of Pose will air on June 6.
“’Write the TV show you want to watch!’ That’s what I was told in 2014 while completing my MFA in screenwriting. At the time we weren’t seeing very many Black and Latinx characters—that happened to also be LGBTQ+—populating screens. And so I wrote the first draft of a pilot the ‘younger me’ deserved. Pose was conceived as a love letter to the underground NY ballroom community, to my beloved New York, to my queer & trans family, to myself,” Canals said in a statement.
“I, along with my incredible collaborators, never intended on changing the TV landscape,” Canals continued. “I simply wanted to tell an honest story about family, resilience, and love. How fortunate am I to have done that for three seasons. I’m filled with gratitude to our intrepid writers, cast, crew, and producers who worked tirelessly to make Pose come to life, humbled by our loyal audience, thankful to the ballroom community who trusted us to tell their story, overwhelmed by the critics who warmly embraced us, and forever indebted to Ryan Murphy, FX, and 20th Television for changing my life.”
“My life has been forever changed because of Pose, a drama series that centered around trans and queer people, people living with HIV/AIDS, and Black and Latinx people—without trepidation or apology. It’s left an indelible mark on our culture, modeling that a TV show can be successful and entertaining while also casting authentically, hiring LGBTQ talent in front of and behind the camera, and moving people living on the margins to center stage,” writer, director and executive producer Janet Mock said in a statement.
“Though I am heartbroken to say goodbye to our beloved characters, I know the work my fellow writers and producers, our crew, and trailblazing cast did on Pose will live forever as a glittering, heart-filled, bright beacon of love, acceptance, family and community,” Mock added. “I am grateful to FX for being our home, 20th Television for the support, to Ryan Murphy for your bold vision, to our audience for your love and loyalty, and to the ballroom community for trusting us.”
We look forward to the upcoming third season, which will not only be a celebration of its return, but an honoring of the entire series. We’ll “live, work, pose!” with this series for the final time this year. And the category will be…bittersweet.