How do we love thee, This Is Us? Let us count the ways.

Starring Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, Sterling K Brown, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chrissy Metz, and plenty more big names, the NBC series spans decades as it charts the lives of the Pearson family. Blending flashbacks and flashforwards with its present day timeline, it takes us from the heady early days of Kate and Jack’s romance in the 1970s, to the raising of their triplets in the late 80s and early 90s, to the triplets growing up and forming their own families in the present day.

But, with reports that the award-winning TV series is due to end very soon, it’s no wonder that fans have a lot of questions about the upcoming sixth season.

Here’s what we know so far.

Firstly, is This Is Us really and truly ending with season six?

Sadly, it really does seem as if the sixth season of This Is Us is set to be the very last, with creator Dan Fogelman insisting that he doesn’t want it to be one of those shows that runs and runs.

“We never set out to make a television series that was going to last 18 seasons,” he promised fans via The Hollywood Reporter in 2019. “We have a very direct plan.”

Fogelman added: “I have script pages I have written and I’m writing that really are deep, deep, deep into the future. We have a plan for what we’re going to do, and I know what the plan is.”

Has filming on This Is Us S6 already begun?

Sterling K. Brown (who plays Randall Pearson in the series) previously revealed the This Is Us cast has already filmed the show’s big finale.

“Dan Fogelman, the creator of our show, has an endpoint in mind,” Brown told local network KSDK in November 2019. “Like there are things that we’ve actually already shot for our series finale right, that we’re banking so that when it comes time to show them, it’ll be fun.”

What can we expect from the This Is Us series finale?

When speaking with the Los Angeles Times in January 2020, Fogelman explained: “I think by the time we’re in our sixth season, you’ll have a lot of the information about what’s happened to this family and what will be left is some resolution.

“I think when the show eventually comes to an end, I think in the best way, it’ll be very quiet and normal. That’s always been the plan, because at the end of the day, it’s a story about this kind of regular family.”

Producer Elizabeth Berger added to Digital Spy: “We’ve been doing it for a long time, and many of us have been there from the very beginning, and have moved through the years together.

“We love the show, and it will be a big, emotional deal when it comes to the end.”

Have any spoilers been released for This Is Us S6?

So far, we don’t know all that much about season six; as die-hard fans of the show will know already, season five is still ongoing, which means everything’s to play for.

It’s likely, though, that the series will pick up on the following storylines:

1) Kevin as a father of twins

Kevin and Madison welcomed twins Nicholas and Fran this season, so it’s likely that we will watch them grapple with their new roles as parents in season six.

2) Kevin and Randall’s relationship

The relationship between Kevin and Randall still feels incredibly strained. We can only hope that, by the time the series finale rolls around, the brothers have found a way to work through it.

3) The beginning of Rebecca and Miguel’s romance

Yes, we’ve known that Rebecca married Miguel since the very first season of This Is Us, but we don’t actually know how romance blossomed between Jack’s widow and his best friend.

Mandy Moore previously told EW that “season six [has] 18 episodes to wrap up this whole story,” and that she hopes viewers will come to see “how Miguel was a shoulder for her to lean on in the weeks and months and years after Jack passed away.”

4) Kate and Toby’s new life together

Their marriage hasn’t always been steady, but Kate and Toby have been shown adopting a new baby, Hailey, in season five. It seems fair to assume that season six will explore how they take to becoming parents once again.

5) A new career for Beth

Beth hasn’t seemed herself in season five, and no wonder; the Covid-19 pandemic forced her to close down her ballet school, putting her career plans in jeopardy. What will she do next?

6) Rebecca’s big goodbye

Rebecca’s health has been steadily deteriorating in the show’s flashforwards following her early Alzheimer’s diagnosis, and it seems as if the series is building up to the family gathering around her deathbed to say goodbye. Which will be… well, devastating, but a beautiful way to end the show.

When will This Is Us S6 be released?

At the moment, there’s no official release date for This Is Us’ sixth season. However, it’s worth noting that NBC has aired new seasons of This Is Us in September or October every year since 2016.

If the network continues to follow this same pattern, it means that the earliest we can expect season six to arrive on our screens would be September 2022. 

Fingers crossed, then, that there aren’t any delays due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

How can we watch This Is Us S6 in the UK?

All five seasons of This Is Us are available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, with the streamer releasing episodes of the most recent series every Wednesday – the day after the episodes air in the US.

It’s likely that the same will happen with season six.

Images: Prime Video/NBC