The Bold Type's ending was changed the night before filming

Variety

“What ended up happening with Sutton’s storyline at the end — they rewrote it the night before we shot it,” Meghann Fahy told Variety in a Zoom interview along with co-stars Katie Stevens and Aisha Dee. “It was going to end very differently than it ended. And based on some conversations that I had had with them, and that Sam had had with them, they just kind of flipped it, which was really exciting, because it’s not something that I thought was going to happen… The night before, (to have) a huge storyline change is kind of unique. So it was exciting.”

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• Showrunner Wendy Straker Hauser says The Bold Type's final twist "was not always part of the vision": "It really came up when we found out we were having the fifth and final season, and we knew it was a shortened season, and we really wanted to get Kat back at Scarlet with the girls, and it just sort of came out of that. Then as we started to think about all the girls’ storylines and Jane’s storyline and the fact that she’s wanted this her entire life, and what would it look like if you step into something, and it’s actually not right for you?"
• Hauser says ending the series was "bittersweet": "We use this word so much lately, but it really was. We were so grateful to have had the opportunity," she says. "It would have been so heartbreaking if we had ended last year and ended our characters in the places that we ended them. So to get this opportunity was amazing, but it was such a challenge and it was so difficult all around. I never got to go to Montreal this season to see everyone or say goodbye or experience any of the magic that happened there. It was tough for the actors—it was isolating, it was scary at times, and it was really limiting. And for the crew as well, our production hours had been shortened. I think what’s amazing and a tribute to everyone involved is that you turn on the TV and the magic is still there and the heart is there. It was just a little bit harder for everyone. It was a real challenge, but I wouldn’t change it for having ended early."
• What would The Bold Type have done if you'd had two more episodes to tell that story?: "I think we just would have slowed it down," says Hauser, adding that "given the time constraints that we had, I'm really impressed with our cast and our crew and our writing team and how we were really able to really get to where we needed to go in a believable way that felt, I think, surprising, but also satisfying."
• Meghann Fahy on what ended up on not making the final season: "One of the things that the writers were going to expand on was Sutton’s drinking," says Fahey. "The plan was to explore that on a deeper level, but they didn’t think they could do that type of story justice with such a small amount of time this season. They had to retool how they wanted it to play out."
• The Bold Type is often criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of the media industry, but its final twist was dead-on