‘This Is Us’ Fans Slam Showrunner’s Confirmation That COVID-19 Will Be A Storyline In Season 5

This Is Us fans reacted online after the show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, confirmed the coronavirus pandemic will be a storyline on the upcoming fifth season of the NBC drama.

After Fogelman shared a tweet, seen here, in which he revealed that his writing team plans to attack things “head on” when it comes to addressing COVID-19 in scenes set in the present day, the reaction from fans of the Emmy-nominated show was mixed.

While the showrunner said he does not know when production on the penultimate season will start, many viewers were unhappy they will have to re-live the coronavirus when new episodes of This Is Us eventually air.

In the replies to the tweet, several people expressed their annoyance over the decision.

“Please no COVID storylines we’re tired of it!!!!!!!!” one viewer wrote on Twitter.

“Oh no, who wants to watch anything about COVID after living through it? Poor choice,” added another.

“If I wanted to watch current events I would watch the news,” remarked a third. “I like my shows being an escape from that. I don’t like how so many shows are doing this.”

“Hate how This Is Us wants to tackle COVID,” a fourth user declared. “Don’t know about you guys but I watch TV to escape COVID, not be reminded of it. For medical shows, I could get past it but it doesn’t belong in a drama show like this.”

While there was some outrage, other viewers praised the series for incorporating the real-life global crisis into the Pearsons’ present-day storylines. One commenter noted that the omission of the health pandemic would make the “very real-life” drama seem like a fantasy. The fan also suggested that perhaps COVID is how Rebecca Pearson’s second husband Miguel (Jon Huertas) dies.

The introduction of the COVID twist to already mapped-out storylines is not a huge surprise for avid fans. This Is Us star Chrissy Metz previously predicted the series would “have” to touch on the pandemic in Season 5 when she spoke in an interview with web series Q.10, according to Page Six.

Additionally, some fans wanted to know if This Is Us would address other important real-life topics, including the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the Black Lives Matters movement.

Sterling K. Brown previously told TV Line that he has had “conversations” with Fogelman and the writers about race-related topics and that he knows the real world is “necessarily” going to impact the world of the Pearson family.