‘Girls’ to End After Season 6 Airs in 2017

Season 5 of the popular (and oft-criticized) HBO comedy-drama Girls doesn’t air until February 21, but talk of the show’s eventual end is already stirring online.

According to Deadline, sources say the show will wrap for good following the airing of its sixth season, slated to air in 2017. The site says the decision was a unanimous one, as the show’s producers agreed, in conjunction with show creator Lena Dunham, that the shelf life for Girls is quickly come to an end.

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention: Dunham has explained in numerous past interviews that she’d rather the show not drag on just for the sake of doing it. She'd prefer Girls go out on a high note, something numerous other television shows could’ve benefited from.

In an interview with Elvis Duran and the Morning Show last September Dunham said, “Never say never, but that is the way we’re thinking about it right now and we’re starting to think about sort of how to wrap up the storylines of these particular young women. It’s really exciting. I started working on this show when I was 23 and I’m going to be 30 so it kind of feels right that this show kind of sandwiches my 20s and then I go off into the world.”

Season 5 is set to pick up six months after Season 4’s finale, and while it’s a bummer for hardcore fans that the series has to end at all, at least there are two more full installments to look forward to.

Watch Girls when it returns to HBO on Sunday, February 21 at 10PM.