The made-in-Utah series “Andi Mack” is ending its run on the Disney Channel. The series returns to the schedule on Friday, June 21; the final episode will air on Friday, July 26.
Through three seasons and 57 episodes, the show “expanded and broadened the Disney Channel brand,” said Disney Channel president Gary Marsh, who promised the final episode will deliver “a meaningful and satisfying conclusion to three wonderful seasons of this brilliant series.”
Series creator/executive producer Terri Minsky called the show a “labor of love” for the cast and crew, and pointed to a series of firsts it represented on the Disney Channel.
“We were its first serialized show, its first series centered around an Asian American family, and its first to feature an LGBTQ character who spoke the words ‘I’m gay,’” she said. “But the best part of making ‘Andi Mack’ was our audience, who let us know we mattered to them. The series finale is for them.”
The series, which centers on Andi (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and her middle-school friends, was a departure for the Disney Chanel. In the March 2017 premiere, 13-year-old Andi learned that her older sister, Bex (Lilan Bowden), is actually her mother — that she gave birth as an unwed teen and moved away, leaving Andi to be raised by her grandparents.
Early in Season 2, one of the regular characters on the show, Andi’s friend Cyrus (Joshua Rush), came out as gay. Episodes dealt with bullying, guns, love, betrayal, multiculturalism, religion, sexism, privacy, lies, military deployments, standing up to authority, jealousy and mental health, among other things.
“We’ve loved having ‘Andi Mack’ in the Utah for the last three years,” said Virginia Pearce, director of the Utah Film Commission. “It’s such a groundbreaking, positive show that has brought both economic and cultural impact to our state.”
The end of “Andi Mack” is not the end of Disney TV production in Utah. The new series “High School Musical: The Musical” is currently filming in Salt Lake City; it will launch later this year on Disney+, the new streaming service.
“Andi Mack” was struck by offscreen scandal in December when Stoney Westmoreland, who had a recurring role as Andi’s grandfather, was arrested in Salt Lake City and charged after he allegedly tried to set up a sexual encounter with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old boy. Westmoreland has been edited out of all upcoming episodes of the series.
Disney Channel executives did not comment on whether Westmoreland’s arrest played into the decision to end “Andi Mack.”
