‘Mad Men’ Final Season Air Date Set, But How Will It All End For Jon Hamm?

After HBO’s The Sopranos ushered in a new era of television currently being dubbed a “golden age” by most media, there was a vacuum for more shows of this same depth of character and deep psychological drama. Mad Men, worked on by many of the same people as The Sopranos, was one of the first shows to pay up on the promise of how great television could be when it premiered in 2007. Now, almost a full eight years later, the landscape of television has gone through an even deeper transformation, but Mad Men still reigns supreme as one its greatest creations.

Jon Hamm, Cristina Hendricks, Elisabeth Olsen, and the rest of the cast, who began as relative unknowns, will reprise their roles one final time on April 5 — almost exactly four months from now. Mad Men will then take its final bow seven weeks later in May.

Mad Men fans who kept up with the first half the seventh season will undoubtedly be curious to see what direction this final season heads with Hamm’s iconic character Don Draper. In the half-season finale, his future at Sterling Cooper was again hanging in the balance, although it was another key character who ultimately made their final exit from Mad Men.

Notably, this season of Mad Men will likely be the first to exist outside of the 1960s, something that could have implications for the tone of the final season, according to Vox.

“Since last spring’s midseason finale ended on the moon landing, it seems likely ‘Mad Men’ will leave behind the ’60s for the ’70s. In historical fiction, that often means leaving behind an era of promise for one of malaise. It will be interesting to see if ‘Mad Men’ leans into that or avoids the cliché.”

As hoards of speculating fans have learned before, Mad Men has steered less and less toward the traditional television tropes reserved for buzz-filled season finales. During Season 6, a large portion of the Mad Men fan base was convinced that a string of thinly-veiled reference meant that Jon’s wife Megan already had been or was going to be murdered. That, of course, didn’t happen — something Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner says he’s been doing intentionally so people aren’t disappointed by what he says won’t be a traditional “shock” series finale, he told Deadline.

“You’ll have to see how we bring it all together. We don’t want to punch them in the face [with the ‘Mad Men’ finale]… We want them to walk away changed or better or at least entertained by it. That’s all I can say.”

Are you expecting a massive twist for Jon Hamm’s character in Mad Men?

[Image via AMC]