Darren Star says his decision to avoid the coronavirus in Younger's final season, premiering Thursday on Paramount+, was based on his experience avoiding the 9/11 tragedy on Sex and the City, which he also created, when the HBO comedy returned for Season 5 in 2002. "We didn’t include 9/11 in terms of it specifically affecting the lives of the characters; we didn’t reference 9/11. And I think that was also a really good decision," says Star in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. When presented with the option of ending Younger in the COVID era, Star decided to avoid the pandemic altogether. "We had discussions about possibly including COVID," he said. "We mapped out some story directions. But our timeline picked up where we left off — which, in the real-world timeline, was at least eight months before COVID would have affected the lives of these characters. We would have really had to jump time to catch up to when the pandemic hit and we would have been playing a guessing game about how things would develop, and I didn’t want to do that." Star added: "Younger is timeless. This a series you can watch years from now. And COVID, to me, instantly stamps it. Ironically, this final season became the most beautiful, biggest-looking season in terms of our production values and that’s really due to the amazing crew, our directors and how they were able to pull off the COVID-free, beautiful Manhattan that you see on the streets this season. To me, it’s a dream of what I hope New York will be looking like again soon."
