What Showtime’s Ray Donovan Movie Will Be About After Unexpected Season 7 Cancellation

Liev Schreiber as Ray Donovan in promo photo

The worst thing that can happen to a television show is a cancellation, especially when it doesn’t get a proper finale. Showtime’s Ray Donovan suffered that fate last year, as the network announced it would be cancelling the crime drama after seven seasons. But after hope and speculation, Showtime recently announced it would be wrapping up the storyline in a feature-length film, but what will the film be about?

The new Ray Donovan film, which will premiere sometime in 2022, will reportedly pick up where Season 7 left off when it ended in January of 2020, according to Deadline. Mickey was in the wind and Ray was determined to find and stop him before he can cause any more tragedy. According to the trade, it will also weave together the present-day fallout from the Donovan/Sullivan feud with Ray and Mickey’s origin story from 30 years prior.

Liev Schreiber will return as the titular character and will co-write the script with series showrunner David Hollander, who will also direct. Jon Voight and Kerris Dorsey will reprise their roles as Mickey Donovan and Ray’s daughter, Bridget, respectively. The film will be executive produced by Hollander, Schreiber, Mark Gordon, Bryan Zuriff and Lou Fusaro.

When Ray Donovan was cancelled, fans were not happy and definitely not ready to say goodbye to the characters they’ve come to love over the seven seasons. Showtime’s Co-President of Entertainment, Gary Levin, said they heard the fans loud and clear, and the team is delighted that a thrilling new chapter is being created. Levin explained:

When Ray Donovan went off our air after seven great seasons, we heard from so many of its loyal fans that they were not ready to say goodbye to Ray and the wonderfully dysfunctional Donovan clan. And so, for them, we are delighted that Liev and David are creating a thrilling new chapter of this iconic series.

Last year, after the series had been cancelled, Liev Schreiber gave fans hope when he said there would be more Ray Donovan, thanking fans for their overwhelming love and support they expressed after news broke. He said their voices seemed to have been heard and that it was too soon to say how or when the show and character would be back once again. Soon after, there were claims that the series would return with either a feature-length TV movie or a limited set of episodes, and it seems the latter was the option Showtime landed on.

Ray Donovan centers on the life of the titular character, who is a professional “fixer” arranging bribes, payoffs, threats, crime-scene cleanup and other illegal activities to protect his celebrity clients. The series first premiered in June 2013, with the pilot episode breaking viewership records and becoming the biggest premiere of all time on Showtime.

Megan Behnke
Freelance TV News Writer

Passionate writer. Obsessed with anything and everything entertainment, specifically movies and television. Can get easily attached to fictional characters.