Roseanne Barr has revealed how her namesake character will be written off in the upcoming The Connors spin-off Roseanne Barr Says Her Namesake Character Dies of an Opioid Overdose on The Conners Roseanne Barr has revealed how her namesake character will be written off the upcoming The Conners spin-off. During an appearance on Brandon Straka’s YouTube show Walk Away over the weekend, Barr said her character will die of an overdose. Get push notifications with news, features and more. “Oh ya, they killed her,” she said. “They have her die of an opioid overdose.” Barr admitted she was unhappy with the way the writers apparently decided to end her character’s arc. “It wasn’t enough to [fire me], they had to so cruelly insult the people who loved that family and that show,” she said. But the actress said she’s come to terms with the show moving on without her. “There’s nothing I can do about it. It’s done. It’s over,” she said. “There’s no fight left.” The Conners, which focuses on the same family (minus Roseanne Conner) at the center of Roseanne, officially started production last month. The show follows the hugely successful 10th season of Roseanne,which aired from 2017 to 2018 but was later canceled because of a since-deleted racist tweet from creator Barr about Valerie Jarrett, former senior advisor to President Barack Obama. 147831_8928 Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, released a statement calling the tweet “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” RELATED VIDEO: Roseanne Barr Speaks Out in First TV Interview Since Roseanne Firing: ‘It Cost Me Everything’ Weeks later, PEOPLE confirmed the network had greenlit the spinoff with five of the six core cast members returning for a 10-episode, straight to series order. The Conners will follow “the Conner family who, after a sudden turn of events, are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.” John Goodman previously hinted at the death of Barr’s character during an interview with U.K. newspaper The Times. “I guess [Dan will] be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead,” he said, implying that Barr’s character will be killed off.<doc-sep>ABC/Robert Trachtenberg The Conners ABC Premieres: Oct. 16 Airs: Tuesdays at 8pm ET/PT Who’s In It? John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, Michael Fishman All of your questions will be answered. #TheConners premieres Tuesday at 8|7c on ABC! pic.twitter.com/bQyZgV9YQt — The Conners (@TheConnersABC) October 10, 2018 What’s It All About? ABC executives took a risk when they rebooted Roseanne this past spring, knowing star and executive producer Roseanne Barr’s volatile reputation. The risk reaped a big ratings reward, and the show was renewed for a second season. Then Barr torpedoed the show with a racist tweet. ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey was swift and decisive: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.” Soon after, ABC announced that it picked up The Conners, and that principal cast members John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman were onboard to salvage something from Roseanne’s wreckage — without any involvement by Barr. According to the network, the Conner family faces “a sudden turn of events.” In late August, Goodman hinted to The Sunday Times that the Roseanne character dies, saying that Dan will “be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.” For all her outrageousness, Roseanne (the character) was still the hub that held the Conner family wheel in place and the source of its best jokes. Will the audience that boosted the Roseanne reboot outright reject The Conners? Viewers will tune in to The Conners to learn Roseanne’s fate, but will they come back for more? Without the irascible Roseanne, the series has a hard row to hoe.<doc-sep>They’ve sat together and laughed around this timeworn kitchen table on the Warner Bros. set in Burbank countless times over the past 30 years. But today Sara Gilbert, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are understandably apprehensive. It’s the first time they’ve spoken collectively since the reboot of their hit show Roseanne was abruptly canceled by ABC in May after its star Roseanne Barr tweeted a racist statement about former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. Despite being known for frequently controversial behavior, Barr encountered a swift condemnation from many corners, including from Gilbert, who soon took to Twitter as well. “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent,” she tweeted. “I am disappointed in her actions to say the least.” Now Gilbert, Goodman and Metcalf, though justifiably wary of engaging in a discussion about Barr herself, are feeling something besides shock or disappointment, something closer to relief: gratitude. All three are appreciative that the aftermath of last spring’s outrage has yielded a spinoff, The Conners, and they are also grateful to the former matriarch for allowing the new show to proceed. Notably absent from The Conners is Barr; ABC has said she agreed to have no creative or financial ties to the show, which was crucial for the spinoff to move ahead. “That was a very big deal,” says Goodman. “To give us a chance.” And while each star is still adjusting to the loss of a family member—both on and off-set—they’ve found strength in their deeply rooted love for the series. “There was the feeling of not wanting it to go away until we were ready,” Goodman adds. “There was a debt owed to this fictional family. We’ll figure out how to get through this, the family will, everybody will. We want to finish telling this story.” Get push notifications with news, features and more. conners3 Credit: Jeff Lipsky Stepping back onto the set last year for the show’s critically acclaimed 10th season was a surreal experience for everyone involved. From the shabby furniture to the cluttered decor of the midwestern family’s working-class home, the replicated minutiae of the house “was bizarre,” says Goodman, 66. “Everything was the same.” Although Barr’s volatility was long demonstrated, revisiting their characters—blue-collar father-of-three Dan, his daughter Darlene and his sister-in-law Jackie—from the hit show, which first ran from 1988 to 1997, was an easy decision for all of them. “I jumped in right away,” says Metcalf. “I had always hoped for maybe a one-show reunion, just to get everybody back in the room again and also remembering what a great working energy we had, all of us together.” Gilbert, 43, who began working on the series when she was 13, also opted to return as a producer for the revival. “I had a very strong desire to protect the show,” she says. “That’s why I wanted to produce it, because I felt like I could be some kind of gatekeeper, hopefully, for having integrity in terms of how it matched up to the original.” From day one “it felt so right,” Goodman adds. “Everybody was extremely grateful to be back, and anything that feels that good is bound to affect somebody.” With stellar ratings during its mid-season premiere, the limited series was immediately picked up and then renewed for another season. “It’s the kind of history that you really can’t buy in an ensemble, because we really have lived it,” Metcalf, 63, says of the reboot’s success. “I was just awash with sentimentality and more appreciative of it,” adds Goodman. “It was a great feeling.” JOHN GOODMAN, LAURIE METCALF Credit: Eric McCandless/ABC Then, on May 28, replying to a tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, Barr made a racist comment (which has since been deleted). The next day the fallout was immediate, with ABC denouncing Barr’s “repugnant” statement as “inconsistent with our values” and canceling the show. “I remember I was in my kitchen, and maybe my daughter or my wife told me,” Goodman recalls of first hearing about the tweet. “It just didn’t seem true. Then it got true. I was consciously trying to accept it. Just like, ‘Okay, this is happening, just breathe and go with it.’ Underneath I’m trying to get out of a plastic bag that is closing in on me, but I’m trying to be calm on the surface. I remember that contradiction.” Gilbert took the same approach when it came to processing the news. “I don’t remember too much,” she says. “It was more just, ‘Okay, what are we dealing with today?’ I was just kind of taking things one step at a time as they came.” In New York City, where she was performing Three Tall Women on Broadway, Metcalf “was home, and I saw it on the news, actually,” she recalls. “And I [first] thought, ‘Oh, I wonder if we still have a show.’ Because of how heavy everything became.” conners Credit: Jeff Lipsky In the weeks following the cancellation, each of them grappled with the now-tainted quintessential comeback story. Goodman tried to focus on “the hope of resurrecting it,” he says. “It was so unbelievable to do this show, and it was like easy come, easy go. I had a bad time for about a month. And then other things started going wrong. I fell down the steps and broke a rib. My wife got sick—just all kinds of weird stuff happened at one time. But I just had a feeling that it would work out.” Initially Metcalf wasn’t as confident. “I was trying to reconcile myself to the show being gone,” she says. “Because I wasn’t in the loop of any other possibility except it being gone. So I was trying to be resigned to that. And you know, coming off such a high, it was hard to wrap our heads around.” Compartmentalizing seemed to work best for Gilbert. “It was more just, today we’re dealing with what happened and the cancellation, and then it was the network pretty shortly thereafter started to talk to us about what could come next,” she says. “You know, after the dust settled.<doc-sep>When one of television’s most iconic couches returns Oct. 16, it won’t be supporting the leading lady that popularized it. As the countdown to the Roseanne Barr-less “The Conners” premiere continues, speculation about how Barr’s character will be written off remains rampant, with producers refusing to confirm whether Barr’s own revelation that her character is killed off from an opium overdose is true. (Barr was fired and the “Roseanne” revival was canceled in May following a racist tweet from the actress and producer; she relinquished all rights to the characters in order for “The Conners” to move forward.) “We want people to watch the show and see what happens and how we [wrote Roseanne off],” says executive producer Bruce Rasmussen. “You don’t want to be flip about how you do this. A lot of people cared about that character and it’s separate from whatever feelings they had about the person and her political views and the things she said. We wanted to honor that character. People can have their opinions after that.” “The Conners” was officially greenlit in June when series regulars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Alicia Goranson and Michael Fishman inked new deals. The resurrection is touted as saving hundreds of below-the-line jobs, and so far has confirmed several guest stars including original series star Johnny Galecki, Juliette Lewis, Justin Long and Steve Zahn. To dig into the challenges of reimagining a reboot, Variety caught up with Rasmussen and fellow executive producer Dave Caplan. Here, they discuss incoming storylines and tones, crafting this series without its matriarchal figurehead, and paying homage to the iconic images and characters from the past 30 years. How political is “The Conners” compared to “Roseanne?” Rasmussen: We are living in a time where people are very anxious and can’t afford to go to the doctor and all that other stuff. So we’re writing in the same way we wrote last year about the economic things. If some of those feel political, they’re political, but we’re not doing any more of the Trump stuff. It’s more about working-class people and how they live their lives. If that comes off as political in spots then that’s how people will perceive it. Where does the inspiration for those storylines come from? Caplan: The newspaper. The past lives of the characters. We’re really lucky to inherit characters that have long histories and as they continue to live their lives they face new challenges. In America 2018 there’s no shortage of challenges, especially when you’re living in a lower income bracket in America. It’s tough and there are a lot of challenges and there are a ton of stories there for us tell. What were conversations with the cast like before forging ahead with the show? Caplan: It was a huge vote of confidence to get all these actors back. These actors are in tremendous demand and they didn’t have to come back and do this. The fact that they wanted to and they knew they were going to be challenged by the scripts that we’re writing and they knew they wanted the legacy of the show to be what it deserves to be. It was a real blessing for us and I think it says a lot about what they think of the show. Rasmussen: Very few shows have gone on after the lead character has left, so part of it was how do we make a show that works without that central character? It was a little surprising to me that it was as easy as it was to move forward without that character, but the other characters came to the fore more. We’re going to get more involved in the characters’ personal lives this year. It really is where are they at in their lives now and what does that mean and what are they going to be dealing with? There have historically been shows that continued without their leads— did you look to any for inspiration or have any conversations with producers in a similar situation? Rasmussen: When Dave and I and [showrunner] Bruce Helford were talking about this, we did think about “Valerie” and “The Hogan Family” and we just referenced that, but that was the only other one we could remember this happening to. We didn’t remember how they did it and we didn’t talk to anybody about how they did it. Caplan: Historically, we went back and took a brief look at the far history of television, there were things like “The Danny Thomas Show” where they dealt with a major character leaving, but this was kind of unprecedented. We knew it would be, and that it might be difficult from a writing standpoint to do it honestly and not break the bond of honesty that we feel we have with our audiences. We felt that if it came off as artificial in any way it was just going to be a disaster. So we wanted to try and do it in the most emotionally honest way possible. Beyond the premiere, what kind of lasting presence does the Roseanne character have in order to not feel disingenuous to audiences that are aware the mother figure is absent? Caplan: What’s interesting about the absence of the Roseanne character is that these other characters have to step up and fill a void. It puts them through changes that are interesting for people that know these characters. And even if they’ve never watched the show before it’s still going to be fascinating to see how people adapt when something happens in their lives. Everyone has tragedies in their lives, or has someone they love leave them. And you have to adapt and you have to grow, and that’s what these characters are going to be going through in an interesting way. Rasmussen: We do track the lack of the Roseanne character through multiple episodes. Given the new ensemble feel, were there specific characters you were excited to take deeper dives with? Rasmussen: All of them. What we did last year with Becky was a blast.<doc-sep>
The cast of The Conners — Maya Lynne Robinson, Jayden Rey, Michael Fishman, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Emma Kenney, Ames McNamara, and Lecy Goranson — pose for a promotional photo. (Photo: Robert Trachtenberg/ABC via Getty Images) Even viewers who watched Roseanne from its 1988 premiere are curious about exactly what The Conners, the rebranded version of the show that’s now without its star and co-creator, Roseanne Barr, will be like. You’ll remember that the Roseanne reboot was canceled in May after she tweeted a racist comment. The series was then picked up as a spinoff, with the rest of the cast — Sara Gilbert, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Fishman, Lecy Goranson, and others — as well as most of the crew, intact. Less than a week before the premiere on Oct. 16, here’s what we know: Roseanne won’t be involved with the show at all. Really. ABC’s decision to cut ties with the star of the network’s highest-rated show of last season was somewhat surprising, but it was decisive. Barr reached a settlement with Tom Werner, the producer of the original and the reboot, so that it could happen. Executives at ABC were the ones who demanded she leave, although her co-stars weren’t happy with her either. Yes, the cast knows the situation with Roseanne Barr is awkward — and even sad. They’re excited to be back on the air, but they’ve known Barr for at least 30 years and worked with her for many of them. They get it. “Sara and I had this scene in the first show, where we addressed the grief,” said Metcalf, who plays Barr’s sister, Jackie. “Sometimes when you’re an actor and you have to go to that place, you substitute something, but in this case there was no need to do that, because it was there. And it was real. And still makes me choke up, because that part of it’s been really hard.” John Goodman, who plays Roseanne’s husband, Dan, seconded that. “She is missed, definitely,” he told Jimmy Kimmel on Monday night. John Goodman and Sara Gilbert’s characters mourn Roseanne in the first episode of The Conners. (Photo: Eric McCandless/ABC via Getty Images) Roseanne’s character will be killed off. Barr herself told Brandon Straka on his YouTube show Walk Away in September that she knows exactly how it happens. “They have her die of an opioid overdose,” she said. The actress said she had actually come up with the idea of Roseanne struggling with the drug, after her experience following a knee surgery. “There was a bit of a fight for me to quit and get off [opioids],” Barr noted. Story continues Still, she strongly disagreed with the show’s decision to have her character die that way. “I wanted to show [opioid struggle] in the show,” Barr said. “But I was never going to have Roseanne die of an opioid overdose. It’s so cynical and horrible. She should have died as a hero or not at all. … It wasn’t enough to [fire me], they had to so cruelly insult the people who loved that family and that show.” The people who are still behind the show could have changed their minds about that storyline, though. Darlene and David are moving on romantically. Dodgeball actor Justin Long is set to play a love interest for Darlene, who’s ex-husband, David (Johnny Galecki), is still nearby. In fact, David has a love interest of his own, a girlfriend named Blue, who will be played by Juliette Lewis. What we don’t know is exactly how David and Long’s characters or Gilbert and Lewis’s will interact, although it’s a good bet that not everything will go over smoothly. DJ has a new wife. While DJ’s wife was played on the Roseanne reboot by Xosha Roquemore, theater actress Maya Lynne Robinson has joined the cast of The Conners to fill it. The character was previously said to be serving in the military in Afghanistan. The little girl that DJ was reluctant to kiss is all grown up. Welcome to #TheConners @MissMayaLynne. pic.twitter.com/Au86R8g5S0 — The Conners (@TheConnersABC) September 14, 2018 The audience’s time in Lanford will be limited. Although 13 episodes of Roseanne were ordered before it was canceled, The Conners will initially get 10 shows to prove what it can do without its matriarch. Still, that’s enough for people to see the family moving through their grief and begin coming back to life. Speaking of which… There will be a Halloween-themed episode.