Do you think Mickey is coming back in season 8?
Oh, anon… This is such a hard question…In short, I really have no idea because I can’t decide if my logically thought out reason for his guaranteed return is still covered by my bias and my desire for him to come back, and I also completely recognize the possibility that he may not. What I do know is this:
1. Noel Fisher has said repeatedly that the ball is in the writers/producers court; that he is totally open to coming back.
2. Noel has told a couple of fans to “just keep watching” and hinted that if prison walls aren’t going to keep Mickey away then neither is a border.
3. At one point, Sheila Callaghan said (though I no longer have concrete evidence of this unfortunately so this is kind of hearsay) that Mickey’s character isn’t dead.
4. The cast and writers all seem to genuinely love Mickey’s character (despite the deplorable treatment in season 6 and 7).
5. I’d estimate half of the fandom has threatened to stop watching after season 8 if Mickey doesn’t come back. Whether or not the producers heed that threat is debatable, but either way I’m sure they probably recognize that they need to somehow keep the Gallavich fans happy because they are definitely a majority of the Shameless fandom and we’ve raised a pretty big stink about this…
6. If they don’t bring Noel back by the end of season 8 (and I mean make it possible for him to come back full time because if they bring him in and write him off AGAIN it doesn’t count) there will be no season 9. I just can not see them getting renewed for another season and I’m not the only one that thinks this. As I’ve said before not bringing Noel back would be like TV suicide at this point.
These 6 things are keeping my hopes up for Mickey’s return, but I do still keep in mind the possibility that either the writers are being too stubborn or maybe even that Noel doesn’t actually want to come back (I find this highly unlikely, but yanno, shit happens).
Anon, I desperately HOPE he does for SO MANY REASONS! And I’ll maintain hope probably until mid November/December and if we still haven’t seen anything?? Then I’ll start to get worried.
Thanks for the ask, Anon!