How To Get Away With Murder Creator Explains Decision To End Drama With Season 6

How To Get Away With Murder Professor Annalise Keating ABC
(Image credit: Eric McCandless / ABC)

How to Get Away with Murder will be joining Grey’s Anatomy in returning to ABC this fall. Unfortunately for fans of the crime drama, Season 6 will be How to Get Away with Murder’s last. The series’ creator, Peter Nowalk, has explained the decision to end the drama. Nowalk said:

Deciding to end this series was a brutal decision, but ultimately the story tells you what to do – as it did here. For me, Annalise Keating’s journey has always had a clear ending. Knowing I have 15 episodes left to finish her story, and the chance to give all the characters their own killer endings, is a gift rarely given to a series creator and I’m grateful to ABC and ABC Studios for the opportunity and creative freedom. I am so thankful to the brilliant cast, writers and crew for dedicating themselves to the most rewarding experience of my career over the last six years. I also want to thank our fans. The only reason this show exists is because of your loyalty and enthusiasm. I can’t wait for you all to see how it ends, with twists and turns and all the craziness we love to create every Thursday night. Buckle up.

As you probably imagined, the decision to end the veteran series was not an easy one. However, Peter Nowalk felt like the story dictated the verdict. How to Get Away with Murder’s creator previously revealed that he had come up with a potential ending for the series.

Now that that the show is officially coming to an end, fans will soon learn what ending it will have. It will be interesting to learn if Peter Nowalk sticks with the one he initially had in mind. He, and How to Get Away with Murder’s writing team, only have 15 episodes left to resolve a five season-plus journey.

Can the show wrap up all of its various plot points in that time? There is a good chance it can. Based on what How to Get Away with Murder’s creator said in his statement, he has gone into Season 6 knowing it would be the show’s last.

Having that kind of foreknowledge should help give Viola Davis’ protagonist Professor Annalise Keating and the other characters a fully realized final conclusion. Ahead of the last season’s premiere, ABC has already released a teaser for it. How to Get Away with Murder does not premiere until September, but a promo for it is already out. You can watch it below:

Looks intense! As viewers learned last season, the FBI has an investigation going on Professor Keating and her students. The trailer shows them reacting to that development. Will they be able to come out of the investigation okay? Or will How to Get Away with Murder have their time run out?

ABC says that Season 6 will chronicle Annalise’s class as they venture through their final semester in law school. At the same time, she and her students will be dealing with the “deception, fear" and “guilt” that bind them together.

In a slightly ominous tease, the promo states that those ties prove “deadlier than ever.” No wonder the series’ creator told fans to buckle up! How to Get Away with Murder premiered during September 2014. After its share of cliffhangers and a crossover with Scandal, the series is nearing the finish line. The bittersweet news is that it will be ending on its terms.

The sixth and final season of How to Get Away with Murder will premiere Thursday, September 26 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC. For now, you can relive or catch up on the drama's first five seasons on Netflix, alongside upcoming content coming to the streaming giant. Following this summer’s premieres, the show will be back to tell its last chapter!

Britt Lawrence

Like a contented Hallmark movie character, Britt happily lives in the same city she grew up in. Along with movies and television, she is passionate about competitive figure skating. She has been writing about entertainment for 5 years, and as you may suspect, still finds it as entertaining to do as when she began.