Justin Chatwin had been with Shameless — and lead character Fiona Gallagher — from the start. Exiting and entering the series as Jimmy, Steve, and several other names, Chatwin and Emmy Rossum’s character had a fiery passion similar to that of Ian Gallagher and Mickey Milkovich.
As those who watched the first half of Season 9 know, the writers made the decision to bring back Noel Fisher to reprise his role of Mickey one more time in order to give Cameron Monaghan’s character Ian a truly satisfying exit.
According to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter , showrunner John Wells revealed the decision to bring Fisher back was the only real ending they saw for Ian Gallagher, as they didn’t want to leave the character stranded in prison with no form of protection.
During that same interview, Wells was also asked whether he had entertained the idea of bringing Chatwin’s character back one last time to save Fiona from the chaos she was currently enduring.
While Wells didn’t say yes to the question, he didn’t say no either.
“I can say absolutely nothing about it, although you don’t want to perform the same magic trick twice in one season,” he said in response.
While fans – and the Inquisitr – speculated that the show’s writers might choose to bring Noel Fisher one more time — to reprise his role as Mickey — it was a secret kept under wraps until those last few moments of Cameron’s final episode.
We’re baaaaaaaack. #Shameless returns this Sunday. Don’t miss it at 9pm #OnlyOnShowtime pic.twitter.com/Yeme3UnYgO
— William H. Macy (@WilliamHMacy) January 18, 2019
Similar to when fans started to grow suspicious that Fisher may be making an appearance in Season 9, Justin Chatwin’s name also popped up in the 2019 credits for Shameless on IMDb .
In the interview mentioned above, Wells explained that he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to perform the same “magic trick” twice, — to which he was referring to bringing Mickey back to give Ian his “happily ever after.”
With that, there’s a chance the writers could still be bringing Justin’s character back, without reusing the same plotline of having Rossum and Chatwin’s characters run off into the sunset together in a happy-ever-after sort of fashion.
After all, as die-hard fans of the series know, it wouldn’t be the first time Chatwin’s character returned in an attempt to get Fiona to run away, only to end up rejected.
Check out Katey Sagal on #Shameless this Sunday at 9pm. Lordy, we had fun! #OnlyOnShowtime pic.twitter.com/6lSASxhCcu
— William H. Macy (@WilliamHMacy) January 26, 2019
Only time will as to how the character of Fiona Gallagher will exit the series. Fortunately, Wells did assure fans of the series that he did leave the ending open-ended, in a way that would allow Emmy to return to Shameless if she ever decided to do so.
New episodes of Shameless air every Sunday night on Showtime.
