OWN is saying goodbye to Greenleaf, but it's not ready to leave the world behind yet.
The cable network and producer Lionsgate TV are developing a spinoff of the megachurch drama. The news comes as OWN has set a June 23 premiere date for Greenleaf's fifth and final season.
The project is in the early days of development, so there's no word yet on which characters from the series might be featured in the spinoff. Greenleaf creator Craig Wright will also develop the follow-up show.
Wright and executive producer Oprah Winfrey had long envisioned Greenleaf as a five-season story, and Wright had considered a spinoff. After seeing an outpouring of support for the show with the announcement of its final season, plans for a spinoff accelerated.
Greenleaf centers on a Memphis family that runs a sprawling megachurch in Memphis, and whose scandalous secrets and lies are as numerous as their faitfhul. The series stars Merle Dandridge, Keith David, Lynn Whitfield, Kim Hawthorne, Lamman Rucker and Deborah Joy Winans.
Lionsgate produces the series in association with Winfrey's Harpo Films and Pine City. Wright, Winfrey, Clement Virgo and Kriss Turner Towner executive produce.
Should the Greenleaf spinoff go to series, it would join a scripted lineup at OWN that also includes Ava DuVernay's Queen Sugar and Cherish the Day, David Makes Man from Tarell McCraney (Moonlight) and Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots.
