Shameless Stars Talking Mickey And Ian's 'Challenging' Time Together In Season 10

Shameless Ian Gallagher Cameron Monaghan Mickey Milkovich Noel Fisher Showtime

(Image credit: Showtime)

Shameless’ Mickey and Ian will have a “challenging” time together in Season 10, according to the show’s stars. The characters enjoyed a happy reunion in Season 9, as part of Ian’s exit story. Cameron Monaghan departed the veteran dramedy, the same season his co-star Emmy Rossum left the series. Ian’s exit saw him head off to prison. The bright side?

It was revealed that his cellmate would be his then-ex-boyfriend, Mickey. The two were shown making the most out of their newly reunited status. At the time, that was sort of the end of their story, although Ian briefly returned in the Season 9 finale.

Now, Cameron Monaghan is heading back full-time, and Ian and Mickey’s relationship will be explored even further. How is their romance going to fare when Shameless returns? Noel Fisher, who will return as Mickey, shed some light on how things are between Mickey and Ian in Season 10, telling EW:

It turns out that living in cramped quarters without much break from one another is not necessarily all that conducive to a healthy relationship. It’s basically living together in the worst studio apartment you can possibly imagine.

It sounds like Shameless is going to take Ian and Mickey on quite a journey. Ian and Mickey have always had their share of roller coaster rides. Having to navigate their relationship while in prison is just another issue that they will have had to make it through.

Ian and Mickey are not just in the same prison. They are cellmates. That's a living situation that makes it super hard for the on-again/off-again couple to have any private time. That lack of space is going to play into their dynamic in Shameless Season 10, according to Cameron Monaghan. Of Mickey and Ian’s current living situation, Monaghan said:

Like any romantic relationship, you need a healthy level of distance and separation, and that’s something not afforded to them. They’re in a challenging place and trying to work through their issues. Now, the way that people work through their issues on Shameless tends to be pretty volatile. I won’t exactly say how they work on solving them, but I will say it involves shivs and stabbings. [Laughs]

Quick! Hide the shivs! Well, this does not sound like the most assuring update on Ian and Mickey’s relationship. Fans of the couple will undoubtedly be hoping they can make it through the turbulence to come. Hopefully, neither will get violent with the other. Cameron Monaghan’s tease does not sound too promising on that front.

If they can make their relationship work in the brutal world of prison, they should be able to make it anywhere. Getting to that point may be tricky for the fan-favorite couple. Not only do Ian and Mickey have to worry about surviving prison, but they also have to deal with the usual struggles a romance endures.

Shameless’ tenth season will see a lot more of one character and a whole lot more of Ian and Mickey. The show gave Ian the happy conclusion of being cellmates with Mickey. Now the reality of spending so much time together is going to set in. Can they survive it?

Their relationship tracks back all the way to the first season of Shameless. They keep coming back to one another for a reason. Will that be enough for them to make it through Season 10 with their relationship still intact? Stay tuned.

Shameless’ Season 10 premieres November 3 at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime, making the dramedy one of many shows returning this fall.

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.