Neighbours boss Jason Herbison has teased what fans can expect from the show’s farewell.
Yesterday it was confirmed that the Australian soap had been axed for a second time after Amazon – who picked up the soap in 2022 after its initial cancellation – decided not to give it a long-term renewal deal.
Following the show’s initial farewell over two years ago, Herbison has revealed in a new interview that its final episode later this year may be “a little bit” different.
Asked about facing saying goodbye again, he quipped to 10 News First: “I’ve had that question a few times today. My response is, ‘Give me a minute’. It’s all very new.
“I’m not sure,” Herbison reflected. “I certainly wouldn’t want to repeat myself – that was a great finale, I loved writing that episode. It was incredible that everyone came back for it. I don’t know, I think this time around it would be a little bit of a different tone.
“But just as we said before, we were resting the show, we do see Neighbours as eternal. Who knows about the future? So I think whatever ending, it will be a door left open kind of ending again.”
The axing comes just weeks before the show’s 40th anniversary, and the executive producer also touched on their celebration plans – including past stars coming back.
“It’s really a very big week that celebrates what Neighbours is,” he said. “Obviously we love nostalgia, we love an excuse to bring back the odd returnee.”
He further promised “some characters coming back that haven’t been back before”, before teasing one particular comeback.
“There’s actually someone on set today that hasn’t been back for a very long time, so that’s a little bit of a hook for even further on into the year,” he added. “The person who’s back on set today we’re all very excited by.”
Neighbours was brought back to screens via Amazon’s Freevee service in September 2023, commissioned for an initial run of two years.
However, the strategy changed after Amazon phased out Freevee, and despite its popularity on Prime Video in the UK, the soap wasn’t able to be saved.
