Pose Will End with Its Third Season Debuting in May

Pose Star Billy Porter
Billy Porter as Pray Tell in ‘Pose’ season 2 (Photo by Michael Parmelee/FX)

FX’s critically acclaimed, award-winning drama Pose will come to end with the series’ upcoming third season. FX just announced the conclusion of Pose along with confirming a Sunday, May 2, 2021 premiere date for the final season. The season/series finale will air June 6th.

Pose was created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Steven Canals. The first two seasons earned Emmy, Peabody, and AFI awards, and is credited with breaking down multiple barriers.

Pose has been one of the creative highlights of my entire career,” said co-creator, writer, executive producer, and director Ryan Murphy. “From the very beginning when Steven Canals and I sat down to hear his vision and ideas for the show, it has been a passion project. To go from the beginning of my career in the late 90s when it was nearly impossible to get an LGBTQ character on television to Pose — which will go down in history for having the largest LGBTQ cast of all time — is a truly full circle moment for me.

This show made history behind and in front of the camera, and its legacy runs deep. I’m so proud of my fellow creators Steven Canals and Brad Falchuk, and also to exec producer/writer/director Janet Mock who made such an indelible mark with her personal and heartfelt work. Thanks also to Our Lady J for her incredible work as a producer, writer and actress on the show. John Landgraf and Dana Walden supported Pose from the very beginning. We got to tell the exact story we wanted, as we wanted to tell it, and I’m incredibly honored and grateful. Pose’s story may end in 1996, but its impact will go on forever.”

The cast of Pose includes transgender actors Michaela Jaé, Dominique Jackson, Indya Moore, and Hailie Sahar. Emmy and Tony Award winner Billy Porter stars along with Dyllón Burnside, Angel Bismark Curiel, Sandra Bernhard, and Jason A. Rodriguez. Porter’s Emmy win in the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series marked the first time an openly gay man won in that category.

Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson, Alexis Martin Woodall, Sherry Marsh, and Janet Mock serve as executive producers, with Our Lady J co-executive producing. Tanase Popa is the supervising producer and Lou Eyrich, Jeff Dickerson, and Kip Myers serve as producers.

“Words cannot truly express my gratitude and appreciation for those who have given FX and the world the gift that is Pose,” said John Landgraf, Chairman, FX. “Ryan Murphy, Steven Canals, our incomparable cast and their collaborators created a masterpiece and, in doing so, have left an indelible legacy that will open doors, new doors, for the trans community. Pose is proof that Ryan’s, Dana’s and our commitment to giving more opportunities to underrepresented writers, directors, producers, actors and craftspeople was not done to signal our virtue — but because our world is literally filled with untapped geniuses looking for nothing more than a chance to prove their extraordinary talent, beauty and value in the marketplace of stories.

Pose has always been a family drama — one about acceptance and inclusion, pain and joy, struggle and perseverance and, most of all, love. The third and final season is a fitting and beautiful ending to this story.”

Executive producer, co-creator, writer, and director Steven Canals said, “‘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.

I, along with my incredible collaborators, never intended on changing the TV landscape. 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.”

“I am more proud of this show than anything else I have created – or ever will create. I’m so grateful to have been a part of it,” added Brad Falchuk, writer, director, co-creator, and executive producer.

Walt Disney Television Chairman of Entertainment Dana Walden said, “Pose represents a great source of pride for all of us inside Disney Television Studios. We are incredibly grateful to Ryan, Steven, Brad, Janet, Nina and Brad for delivering an artistically superb, socially relevant, wildly entertaining and groundbreaking series. This show demonstrates the power of our industry to shine a light on the underrepresented and point to our common humanity—and to do it with glitter, gusto and sheer fabulousness!

A special thanks to Ryan for introducing us to voices like Steven Canals and Janet Mock, and then for clearing the way for them to do their best work. Thanks also go to John Landgraf and the talented team at FX, who have been the best possible partners. And while we are sad to bid the show farewell at the end of this season, audiences are in for a beautiful and emotional final ride.”

Pose Details, Courtesy of FX:

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.