Greenleaf MVP Lynn Whitfield Shares a Discouraging Spinoff Update: ‘But Keep Our Fingers Crossed’

As OWN’s superlative Greenleaf was coming to an end in the summer of 2020, creator Craig Wright was already planning a spinoff. (In fact, he discussed it at lengths with TVLine; read that interview here .) Almost a year later, leading lady Lynn Whitfield shared what she knew about the drama that was to be centered around her estimable matriarch Lady Mae. But since then… nothing.

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So when TVLine recently spoke with the actress, we had to ask: Is the offshoot still on? “You know, I really don’t know what happened with it,” she replied. “I do feel that we told a really good story [on the mothership] and that we told it well, and I was really satisfied with Lady Mae stepping into her own purpose and her own power. It was a really great character arc.”

Agreed. But it was also a character arc that left us wanting more. A lot more. “If there ever would be a spinoff, the tour de force would be that it really went in another direction,” Whitfield suggested, “that it really explored the idea of a woman discovering what she was born to do and navigating that. So it would be such a challenge to do it in a way that broke new television ground.

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“But keep our fingers crossed,” she added. You never know. I always thought, like they did with Downton Abbey , gosh, it would be great to do a movie” to see where all of Greenleaf ’s characters wound up.

TVLine has reached out to OWN to inquire whether there is any update on the spinoff — or if there remain plans for a spinoff at all.

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