The Righteous Gemstones is coming to a close after four seasons at HBO, but it may not be a complete farewell.
The series follows the (fictional) famous televangelist family of the Gemstones, led by widowed patriarch Eli (played by John Goodman) alongside his immature children Jesse (Danny McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson) and Kelvin (Adam DeVine).
“As I started writing this season, everything I was leading towards just sort of felt like it was stories about conclusion and about growth and moving forward,” McBride, who also created the series, told The Hollywood Reporter at the Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday. “So I just followed that and as we were shooting it kind of just became apparent to me that I think we had told the story we were trying to tell.”
The show’s stars admit to being somewhat surprised that season four would be the last, as McBride waited until the last few weeks of shooting to officially announce it. “I think he didn’t want us to make a thing of it all season long,” DeVine said, and maybe for the best, as Patterson confirmed, “When we were done on the final day we all kind of lost it.”
McBride noted that he’s always had “a general idea of some of the elements of how it would end” but things shifted and expanded when shooting with the cast and crew. He also has one more big dream for the show, revealing, “I would be interested in doing a live version of this show, doing a traveling Gemstones tent revival. I think that would be fun.”
Patterson, who doubles as a writer on the show, echoed, “I would love to do a live show. We’ve talked about it a bunch and I really hope that [McBride] wants to for real because I would love it.” DeVine joked of the idea, “I hope that’s how we all end our careers, just at the Universal backlot just flipping off shit, praising Jesus” and Walton Goggins — who stars as fellow televangelist Baby Billy Freeman — mused, “Why not? Bring religion to everybody. The religion of Danny McBride.”
The group also reflected on the series’ ending, as Goggins teased, “I’m so happy with the ending. Everybody wins and everybody in this cast is so at the top of their game; Baby Billy has a song that he sings that I think will be maybe played on radios this summer. I certainly hope so, it’ll be on my — I was going to say on my boombox. What year am I living in, how old am I?”
DeVine added, “I know every actor who is promoting the new season of the show that they’re on is like, ‘This is the best one yet’ — this really is. Those guys are liars and they’re assholes and I’m telling the truth. It’s my favorite, by far.”
The Righteous Gemstones premieres Sunday on HBO.
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