Nearly a decade after its conclusion, Nurse Jackie is officially getting a sequel series from Amazon, which will see Edie Falco reprise her iconic titular role.
Nurse Jackie is a medical dramedy that ran for seven seasons between 2009 and 2015. The show follows Jackie Peyton (Falco), a New York City nurse struggling with substance abuse. In order to cope with her challenging work environment and sustain access to prescription pills, Jackie frequently engages in unethical and even downright illegal activity. Nurse Jackie has frequently been praised as an authentic depiction of substance abuse and the stress of working in the medical field. It also raised awareness for the prevalence of substance abuse in the medical industry and candidly delved into the tragic impact her struggles have on her personal and professional life.
The show received high critical acclaim, ultimately landing 24 Emmy nominations, of which Falco earned six for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. Nurse Jackie ended after seven seasons, but for over a decade, fans have debated what happened after the shocking finale. Now, we finally have a chance to get some answers about Jackie’s fate.
Amazon greenlights Nurse Jackie sequel series
As reported by Variety, Amazon Prime Video is officially developing a Nurse Jackie sequel series, with Falco set to reprise her role as Jackie Peyton. A potential sequel series was first announced in May 2023 from the show’s original network, Showtime. However, months went by with no updates, raising concern about whether the series was still happening. Now, amid Showtime’s rebrand as Paramount+ with Showtime, the development of the show is picking back up as it finds a new home with Amazon. The show does not yet have a release date. Given that it is still in early development, it is not expected to arrive until 2025 at the earliest.
So far, Falco is the only confirmed cast member for Nurse Jackie. She will also serve as executive producer of the series, while Abe Sylvia (Palm Royale) has been tapped to direct. Sylvia and Homeland‘s Liz Flahive will also write and executive produce the show. Both Sylvia and Flahive worked on the original series as producers and writers. While no other original stars have signed onto the show, their returns remain plausible. After all, Merritt Wever’s Zoey Barkow had a particularly close relationship with Jackie, with Wever’s performance also being singled out for high praise. It’s also possible Jackie’s family could return, including her ex-husband Kevin (Dominic Fumusa) and daughters Grace (Ruby Jerins) and Fiona (Mackenzie Aladjem).
Meanwhile, the development of the sequel already confirms what happened to Jackie after the original series. The Nurse Jackie finale ended on a surprisingly dark note, with Jackie collapsing at work after suffering an overdose. Whether she survived the overdose was left ambiguous, leading to a years-long debate over her fate. It was actually a clever decision as it kept the conversation going about the devastating impact of substance abuse long after the show ended. With a sequel series in the works, though, it’s finally confirmed that Jackie survived.
The new show’s longline reads:
10 years after we left Jackie Peyton (Falco) clinging to life in the series finale, we find her back on her feet in spite of having lost her nursing license. The continuation of her story will find her facing new dilemmas in trying to be good in a world where being bad is often not only easier, but a lot more fun.
Although Jackie survived, it seems she finally lost her nursing license after multiple violations of the Nursing Code of Ethics. It’s quite surprising to hear she may not be a nurse in the new series, even though that was one of the central facets of her identity and a huge contributor to her struggles. The show certainly has a lot to catch viewers up on what happened to Jackie after her diagnosis and what she has been doing for the past 10 years. There are also many questions about what happened to her co-workers and how her estranged husband and daughters responded to the news of her overdose.
Ultimately, the Nurse Jackie sequel has a lot of questions and a big time skip to work with. If it can also match the authenticity and dark humor of the original series, it may prove quite successful.
