'This Is Us' creator shares photo from first day of filming final season

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'This Is Us' creator Dan Fogelman shares photo from first day of filming final season

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 9/10/21

It always comes back to Jack and Rebecca.

In the opening scene of the 2016 "This Is Us" pilot, we were introduced to a naked Jack Pearson (Milo Ventimiglia) covered only by a Pittsburgh Steelers "Terrible Towel" and a very pregnant Rebecca Pearson (Mandy Moore). It was Jack's 36th birthday, but it also became the birthday of his triplets: Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz) and Randall (Sterling K. Brown).

The beloved NBC drama has spanned a mind-boggling amount of decades, people and generational webs in the five seasons since, but the photo shared by series creator Dan Fogelman from the first day of shooting the sixth and final season of "This Is Us" returns us back to the blissfully young Jack and Rebecca:

Last first day. Feeling feelings. #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/EEafDL7irV
— Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) September 9, 2021

Fogelman teased the upcoming season more abstractly the day before by sharing a photo of Kevin's painting that he used to explain the complexities of life to Randall's daughters, Tess (Eris Baker) and Annie (Faithe Herman), in the fifth episode ("The Game Plan") of the first season.

Things are happening. #ThisIsUs pic.twitter.com/OXqlZCiWzw
— Dan Fogelman (@Dan_Fogelman) September 9, 2021

Fogelman has always been open about his intention to plot "This Is Us" over the course of six seasons, and that was officially confirmed first by an exclusive report from The Hollywood Reporter and then by an announcement from NBC in May.

Season 5 was abbreviated — it consisted of 16 episodes, while the previous four seasons were each 18 episodes. The sixth season is set to premiere early next year with the usual 18-episode landscape.

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