Watch The Blacklist get animated in season 7 finale trailer
The war between Katarina and Reddington is getting an animated ending on The Blacklist, and EW has an exclusive look.
Debuting below is the trailer for the season 7 finale, "The Kazanijan Brothers," which shows the episode's mix of live-action and animated footage and previews the difficult choices Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone) needs to make.
The animation, which is being used as a workaround for the production shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, was inspired by the Blacklist comic books that were produced during the first seasons of the NBC crime drama. And according to executive producer John Eisendrath, the comic book feel matches the series' themes and tone: “Brutal antihero. Outsized villains. And the animated scenes take full advantage of that,” he tells EW.
Season 7 was jumpstarted by the return of Katarina Rostova (Laila Robins). The Russian super-spy, who's also Elizabeth’s mother, showed up to wage war on Raymond Reddington (James Spader). Liz, who is caught in the middle, has sided with Katarina in order to keep her alive and get the truth about Red.
As Katarina goes after those close to Red, she is endangering people Liz cares about, putting our hero in an increasingly difficult position. Complicating things even further, Reddington, who is hiding a mysterious medical condition, has offered Liz his criminal empire. Going into the season finale, Agent Keen has some big decisions to make.
“I think it’s fair to say that our weird little dysfunctional family is reaching a breaking point,” executive producer Jon Bokenkamp says.
Whether viewers will get answers to the many questions swirling on The Blacklist remains to be seen, but there's definitely more story ahead. NBC renewed the series for an eighth season earlier this year.
But, Eisendrath teases, “Throughout the series, Liz has wondered aloud about whether there is a darkness inside her. In the season finale, she gets the answer — and it’s not the one she was looking for.”
The Blacklist season finale airs Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC. Watch the trailer above.
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