Grace And Frankie Season 7 - What We Know So Far

The Netflix sitcom "Grace and Frankie", created by Marta Kauffman and Howard J. Morris, has turned out to be one of the streamer's most dependable original shows, still sailing smoothly with critics and audiences six years into its run, with stories about friendship, family, and the realities of old age. The show's many devoted fans have been eagerly awaiting its return ever since Season 6 ended on a major cliffhanger for the central quartet of Grace (Jane Fonda), Frankie (Lily Tomlin), Robert (Martin Sheen), and Sol (Sam Waterston).

Unfortunately, "Grace and Frankie" is among the many productions that were affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges of which are especially difficult to navigate in this case, as all four main actors are over 80 years old. After being renewed for a seventh and final season in September 2019, the show had its production interrupted in early 2020, rendering the previous three seasons' steady record of late January release dates all but impossible to match again as the pandemic wore on.

In an interview with Today last September, Jane Fonda gave fans hope that filming might at least resume as early as January 2021. But even that possibility has been since left up in the air. So where do we stand now on "Grace and Frankie" Season 7? Read on to find out.

In a post on her personal blog in November 2020, Jane Fonda finally gave us some reasonably solid intel on the new timetable for "Grace and Frankie's" closing season. "We've gotten word that 'Grace & Frankie' will continue filming our 7th and final season in early June of 2021," the actress wrote. "A long time to wait but, given the age and vulnerability of the 4 leads, it's best."

Given that the season is set to be longer than usual at 16 episodes, and that each of the previous seasons took several months to release even after the wrap on filming, it seemed terribly unlikely that new episodes of "Grace and Frankie" would drop before 2022. This, fortunately, didn't turn out to be the case. Netflix released the first four episodes of "Grace and Frankie" Season 7 on August 13, 2021. Per Deadline, the rest of the season wrapped up filming in November 2021, and is slated for release in early 2022. 

In addition to stars Fonda, Tomlin, Sheen and Waterston, as well as Brooklyn Decker, Ethan Embry, June Diane Raphael, and Baron Vaughn rounding out the series regulars of the Hanson and Bergstein family, you can expect some exciting guest stars to make an appearance in the show's farewell bow.

The live table read of the season premiere screenplay the cast did in April 2020 revealed two guest stars: Michael Charles Roman (who plays Adam) and Tony Award nominee Cora Vander Broek, who resumes her role as FBI agent Karen Fischer, who arrests Grace's husband Nick (Peter Gallagher) in the Season 6 finale. Gallagher himself confirmed in a tweet that he'd be returning in episode 2 of the new season. Other guest stars in the episodes that have already dropped include "Better Call Saul" star Hans Obma, "Roswell, New Mexico" lead Jeanine Mason, "Chicago Med" star Marc Grapey, and many others. 

Arguably the most fitting guest star in Season 7, however, is none other than singer-songwriter, actress, and all-around icon Dolly Parton. In a 2020 interview on British morning show "Lorraine" (via NME), Parton stated that she'll be joining Fonda and Tomlin for a guest spot on "Grace and Frankie," more than four decades after the trio's work in "9 to 5." "I have been trying to do 'Grace and Frankie' for years," Parton said. "We have been trying to write me in somehow so when it is safe to actually do a production, I will probably get around to doing that."

Parton isn't present in the episodes released in 2021. As such, her character will possibly tie in to the show's endgame, which would be a truly fitting tribute to the iconic "9 to 5" trio.

Warning: Spoilers for Season 6 and Season 7 of "Grace and Frankie" abound from here on out.

After learning about Nick's shady business dealings in the end of "Grace and Frankie" Season 6, watching him get dragged off to jail, and finding a pile of $50,000 in cash hidden inside his penthouse sofa, Grace and Frankie's immediate challenge in Season 7 is to find a way to make off with the money without tipping off the FBI agents closing in on them — especially the ruthless Agent Karen, a former acquaintance of Nick's. It doesn't exactly help that Sol and Robert, having had their house flooded by the Rise Up toilet prototype and their savings decimated by an ill-advised donation, are forced to move in with their ex-wives ... who, as creators of Rise Up, are technically responsible for the men's predicament. 

Such is the setup for "Grace and Frankie" Season 7, and if you haven't had the opportunity to watch the four available episodes yet — or are saving them for a full-season binge once the remaining episodes drop — we won't go into details about what happens next. Suffice to say, the plot is full of characteristic twists and turns. 

Working with the final season's three-episode bonus, showrunners Kauffman and Morris seem more interested than ever in exploring the tensions and complexities of the characters' decades-long relationships, dreams and frustrations, for both comedy and pathos. As a lighthearted show that's never shied away from the harsh realities of love and time, it would certainly be fitting for "Grace and Frankie" to spend its final run considering what really matters for these people, and what life ultimately means.