Finally available on Netflix, season 9 of “Blacklist” is the first to no longer feature the character of Liz Keen. Why did Megan Boone, her interpreter, leave the hit series? And what has become of her since she left?
Arrived a few days ago on Netflix, season 9 of Blacklist, led by James Spader in the role of Raymond “Red” Reddington, is already a hit on the platform since it ranks second in the top series.
It must be said that Blacklist fans were certainly looking forward to this new batch given the way season 8 ended, which shockingly closed a very important chapter in the plot.
In the last minutes of the finale, Elizabeth Keen, played by Megan Boone since the very first episode aired in 2013 on NBC, was indeed shot by a bullet fired by Vandyke, Neville’s henchman, and ended up dying in Red’s arms.
Why did the Blacklist writers kill Liz?
This abrupt and tragic end for Liz obviously disappointed the faithful of Blacklist. But it is explained by the fact that Megan Boone made the decision to leave the series after eight years of good and loyal service, in agreement with the chain and the production.
“This experience has been, for me, a lifetime within my own life. Eight years of playing Liz Keen have helped me better understand the world and myself at the same pace as my character”was content to write the 39-year-old actress on social networks after the broadcast of the last episode of season 8, as a farewell to her character and to the series.
Although rumors have been suggesting for years that relations were not necessarily in good shape between James Spader and Megan Boone, officially, the interpreter of Liz has in any case made the decision to leave Blacklist in order to devote himself to other projects.
The American site Deadline also specified in 2021 that this departure, decided jointly with the production, had been acted upstream of season 8, in order to be able to think of the 22 episodes of this eighth salvo as a satisfactory last chapter.
Will Hart/NBC
What has become of Megan Boone since her departure?
Discreet since her departure from the series, Megan Boone has not yet found a leading role in television or cinema.
She just took part in an episode of The Underground Railroad, then an episode of Accused, a new anthology series launched at the start of 2023 on the Fox channel, to which we owe 9-1- 1 or The Resident, which ends after six seasons, much to the dismay of fans.
Created by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa (Homeland), as well as David Shore (Good Doctor), Accused is a legal series that tells a different story in each episode, but always according to the same process: each section opens with an accused in a courtroom.
The public does not yet know what his crime is and does not know the outcome of the trial. The story, told from the point of view of the accused, then goes on to show how an ordinary person is caught in a cycle of bad decisions. Until a point of no return where it is too late to turn back.
The episode in which Megan Boone appears – the second in the series – focuses on the case of Ava (Stephanie Nogueras), a young deaf woman who becomes a surrogate mother for Jenny and Max, a couple played on screen by Boone and Aaron Ashmore (Locke & Key). But nothing will go as planned and Ava will find herself in the dock.
While waiting to be able to discover Accused in France, Blacklist fans can now devour season 9 on Netflix. A new season in which James Spader, Diego Klattenhoff (Ressler) and Harry Lennix (Cooper) remain the last three members of the original cast to still appear in the credits.
Will we finally find out what Red’s secret is? And why did he come into Liz’s life about ten years ago? The future will tell. But one thing is certain: Blacklist will soon deliver all its answers since season 10, currently being broadcast across the Atlantic, will be the last.