‘Awkward’ Showrunners Talk Jenna-Matty Relationship, Tease More Seasons

The kids of MTV’s Awkward are preparing for the end of their senior year, but according to the series’ showrunners, that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the series.

Showrunners Mike Chessler and Chris Alberghini teased that this season may not be the last, if they have their way. During their interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the pair talked about where Jenna, Tamara, Matty and the rest of the crew’s heads will be when we return, where this season will find the Matty-Jenna relationship and whether or not fans should begin preparing themselves for the end ,among many other things.

Read some excerpts from the THR interview below:

Chessler on the Jenna Matty relationship during season 5:

“That is a core axis of the show: the unlikely way they got together after the pilot and then found their way to dating, and then there’s always something getting in the way. And as you can see at the end of 4B, there were a lot of other curveballs. We will definitely continue to explore what they mean to each other and the timeline of high school coming to an end sort of forces the characters to figure it out for themselves, too. I think we have some very emotional and fun and funny stuff coming. We’re excited about it. The grad night episode is a lot of fun. A lot happens there.”

Alberghini on the characters’ frame of mind during 5A:

“I think a lot of the actions that our characters take, a lot of the feelings they’re having, there’s a sense of “boy, this is it. This is the end of high school. This is the last time I’m ever going to do this thing or the last time I’m ever going to do that thing.” And there’s a sense of “do these things define us in life moving forward?” Because when you’re in high school, all of those things seem so important. All of those decisions seem so momentous and life-altering at the time, and it’s very interesting, because we end 5A with graduation, but when we pick up 5B, a substantial amount of time has passed since graduation. So we get to pick up some of those stories, but many months later. So it gives us an interesting way to approach storytelling in 5B.”

Chessler on the end of Awkward:

“In terms of it being the end, it might not be. We don’t know about that. We were just feeling like 5A is the end of the high school chapter of the show, and 5B is a whole new reboot of the show. We finished shooting 5B in July, and we’re really excited about how that came out. On the one hand, it’s a nice resolution, but on the other hand, it opens a lot of doors, so this may not be the end of the show.”

Awkward returns to MTV at 9 p.m. on Monday, August 31.

Photo Credit: MTV