{"id":615832,"date":"2026-09-30T00:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615832\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T00:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:08:11","slug":"all-american-finale-taye-diggs-daniel-ezra-returns-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615832\/","title":{"rendered":"‘All American’ Finale: Taye Diggs, Daniel Ezra Returns Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t[This story contains major spoilers from the All American<\/a> series finale, \u201cTo Live and Die in L.A.\u201d]<\/p>\n

\n\tAt the American Black Film Festival in May, key members of the All American cast joined showrunner Nkechi Okoro Carroll<\/a> for a moderated conversation about the show\u2019s eighth and final season: Greta Onieogou (Layla), Bre-Z (Coop), Kareem J. Grimes (Preach), Michael Evans Behling (who became No. 1 on the call sheet as Jordan Baker over the last two seasons), Taye Diggs<\/a> (who anchored the series as Billy Baker) and surprise guest Daniel Ezra, who starred as Spencer James.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis was the OG crew without Samantha Logan, better known for her role as Jordan\u2019s twin sister Olivia, and a few others. The CW series premiered on Oct. 10, 2018, and its future looked shaky. Landing on Netflix in the age of streaming, however, secured its place among the pantheon of great YA shows.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpencer James (Ezra) going from Crenshaw in L.A. to play football for Coach Billy Baker (Diggs), a Crenshaw High School legend who made it pro, at Beverly Hills High School became about way more than sports. After a stint in Beverly Hills pursuing his pro football aspirations, All American moved back to Crenshaw, creating the rivalry between the two schools that lived on in the just concluded eighth and final season. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe series tackled every hot-button issue from gun violence, drug addiction, unequal schooling, early pregnancy, young marriage, extramarital affairs, past secrets and normalized lesbian love, along with conflict resolution and more. All American became so full that it lasted three seasons after Diggs\u2019 character Billy Baker died tragically in a shock sendoff<\/a>, and two seasons after Ezra\u2019s Spencer James got drafted<\/a>, taking him and Olivia to the East Coast in another show shift.<\/p>\n

\n\tOkoro Carroll, the Ivy League grad from West Africa who traded in a career as an economist to pick up her pen, tells The Hollywood Reporter how watching the All American pilot backed by Greg Berlanti, whom she had on her vision board, blew her mind.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBy the end of the pilot, I was literally sitting in the screening room at Greg\u2019s offices in tears. My mind is racing because I\u2019m like, Oh my gosh, we finally have a show that I was looking for when I grew up on the original Beverly Hills, 90210,\u201d she shares. \u201cI suddenly saw the potential, but the characters looked like me and my children and my friends, and immediately my mind went to a hundred places of where we could take the show, the stories we could tell and the breadth of the universe we could create.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNow 132 episodes later<\/a>, Okoro Carroll signs off on a show where her mission was to make sure young adults, especially Black youth, felt both seen and heard. She even launched a Black College spinoff in All American: Homecoming that lasted three seasons.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCompletion\u201d is the word Behling chose to sum up the show\u2019s finale back in May. \u201cI think the ending for season eight is completion for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOkoro Carroll spoke with THR about the final season while also highlighting some key moments throughout the show\u2019s journey. She explained her approach going into the finale and what it meant to her personally to have both Diggs and Ezra both return, and how Ezra directing the finale episode was a \u201cno-brainer.\u201d She pointed out Easter eggs from earlier seasons included in the final season and shared a little about Spencer Paysinger whose life inspired the series.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe also spoke about making room for her next generation characters KJ (Nathaniel Logan McIntyre, Cassius (Osy Ikhile), Amina (Alexis Chikaeze), Khalil (Antonio J. Bell), Tori (Lauryn Hardy) and others, as well as tackling ICE, and finding that story that connected the day ones and the latest ones to the great, big family she and her team brought to life.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was your approach going into this final season, especially with a series with so much history?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is a tough, tough thing. Lena Waithe was also going into the final, eighth season of The Chi<\/a> [and] we talked about this so much. We\u2019re like, Oh my God, we\u2019re both going into the eighth and final seasons of our show.. how do you wrap up shows that have gone on for that long and had that kind of impact, and feel like you\u2019re doing those characters justice? It\u2019s something Lena and I talked about a lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tTruthfully, these characters are like my family, my children, my best friends, my siblings. I have lived with their voices inside my head in surround sound for years. All American, the All American universe, has been such a huge chapter of my life. So it really was, How do you sit down and say goodbye? And I realized that you can\u2019t. Not any more than I could say goodbye to my son, who was leaving for college at the exact same time.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was going through these huge transitions in my life at the exact same time with my characters on the show [and] my family in real life. The consensus across the board was the same, which is, I cannot say goodbye. But what I can say is, I\u2019ll see you soon. And so, what does \u201cI\u2019ll see you soon\u201d look like for these characters? And that is how we came up with what we wanted to do in the final season.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd that is?<\/p>\n

\n\tFor our OG cast, it was to really see their dreams realized and launch them into a new chapter of life, when the thing you\u2019ve been chasing your whole life you finally catch. And for our new characters, it was about finally giving them that big step forward towards their dreams and the possibilities for their future. That was how I approached it, [along with] really wanting to honor an eight-year legacy of the show by bringing stories full circle.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you do that?<\/p>\n

\n\tThere were so many Easter eggs we planted in earlier seasons that we were able to pay off. I\u2019m grateful for the fact that so many of the same crew members have been part of this since season one. We\u2019ve had people come up in our writers room. We\u2019ve had assistants become writers and producers. We\u2019ve had assistants become directors. This family has been together for such a long time. There\u2019s such a shared history here that we were really able to tap into in this final season, wanting to truly honor and say goodbye to not just these characters, but also to these important relationships.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s why we had episodes centered on Layla and Olivia\u2019s relationship; Jordan and Layla\u2019s relationship; Spencer\u2019s and Olivia\u2019s. I know the fans are anxious [but] we really want[ed] to take time to say goodbye or say \u201csee you soon\u201d to these relationships and characters who have meant so much to so many of us.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTaye Diggs (left) with Daniel Ezra in the pilot of All American.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRay Mickshaw\/CW\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tYou mentioned Easter eggs. What are some of the bigger ones? Give us one or two.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in season four, we did the time capsule where all our series regulars recorded this video of where they thought they would be in the future. We did that on purpose because we were like, if we\u2019re blessed to be a long-running season, we want to see these dreams come true. So when we got to the final season, one of the first things we did was pull up the capsules and rewatch them. How much of this can we really honor and revisit? And and truthfully, there was a significant chunk of it that we were able to honor and revisit, which felt really great to know that we kept their North star true in their journey on this show.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of them is with Shawn and his mom [Ruth] and Coop. When Shawn passed away and his mother finally turned herself in for shooting Tyrone [in season two], our hope and prayer was that we would be on the air long enough to bring that [storyline] full circle so that she wasn\u2019t just forgotten in prison, but that her and Shawn really continued to have an impact in Coop\u2019s life. Bringing it full circle for Coop as she\u2019s going through this existential crisis of her own [and] bringing it back to Shawn [felt right]. For [Coop] to go visit his mom in prison and be like, \u201cI haven\u2019t forgotten you, and I made you a promise. And part of that promise is: \u2018I will one day get you out of here.\u2019\u201d And then to have Shawn\u2019s mom be present when Coop is being sworn in as a lawyer [to show] she didn\u2019t forget that promise.<\/p>\n

\n\tThings like that that were planted in earlier seasons with the hope that we would be on the air long enough to bring it full circle. And there are so many more \u2026 Layla has always wanted to be a mom. Her relationship with her mother, the mental health struggles that she inherited from her mother, so much of that has been such a part of her that we knew we could not complete Layla\u2019s story without taking it full circle into motherhood for her. That was very much by design on the path we led her on this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tTalk about the savvy ways in which you incorporate Taye Diggs through his character Billy Baker, especially since his death in season five.<\/p>\n

\n\tMy father passed away when I was 25. That was 24 years ago [but] you never fully, truly get over that, especially when they\u2019re taken from you unexpectedly. You learn to sort of live with it, and [that presence] manifests in interesting ways in your life. And so, for us, as long as Taye was happy to return to the show in different capacities, that was something, even after the character passed away, that we always wanted. Billy didn\u2019t just disappear off the radar. He stays very present in his kids\u2019 lives, in their decision-making. We had the \u201cletters\u201d episode [\u201cKids See Ghosts,\u201d S6, E8] where Billy was the representation of the letters he\u2019d written for his kids and in the journal he left for Spencer. That was a great way for us to be able to bring him back and have these interactions, even though he wasn\u2019t really in the room with his children.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy did you have to have Billy Baker in the finale?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt felt like there was no way to complete the series without bringing it back full circle to Coach Billy who\u2019d had an impact on all these kids\u2019 lives, and especially Jordan and Spencer, who was like a surrogate son and now son-in-law. There was no version of a final scene of the series that wasn\u2019t going to include Billy. The question was just in Taye\u2019s busy schedule: Are we going to be able to get him back?<\/p>\n

\n\tShout out to Taye Diggs, because that might have been the easiest phone call booking. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d even finish saying the words [before] Taye was like, \u201cI\u2019m in. You just tell me the day you need me. I\u2019m gonna tell my team to black it out. I don\u2019t care when it shoots. I will make it work. I will be there. I will make myself available to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow was this process for you?<\/p>\n

\n\tWriting that scene was very tough. Shooting that scene was both heartbreaking, because the actors wouldn\u2019t stop crying, and also truly one of my favorite moments in the history of the show \u2014 all of us being on set for that moment of Billy watching his boys having to grown up into men, and for Taye very much watching Michael and Daniel, who grew up on the show; everyone was babies when they started.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Taye, it was very much like watching his sons graduate into this new chapter of life. And we were grateful that we were able to incorporate it because it\u2019s this idea that as they\u2019re moving into these next chapters of their lives as fathers that Billy will always be watching over them, and he will always be there, and never left. That\u2019s what that final moment is.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDaniel Ezra returning in the All American series finale.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe CW<\/p>\n

\n\tSo why did you feel Daniel Ezra had to direct the finale and not just be in it?<\/p>\n

\n\tThis whole thing started with Spencer\u2019s journey, and it felt like to bring it full circle, it needed to end with Spencer\u2019s journey. But not only that, Daniel Ezra had been such a huge part of the show and had been such the heart of the show for so long, it just felt right.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe\u2019s a gifted director, and we wanted someone who truly understood the full legacy of the series directing the finale, and so it was sort of a no-brainer that we had that in Daniel as a director, and in Daniel as an actor, and someone who understood the old generation cast as well as the new generation cast, and understood sort of the new direction the show had gone in and would be able to bring those two worlds together.<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, speaking of Spencer, all of this really started with Mr. Spencer Paysinger, the retired NFL player whose own story inspired the series, right? I don\u2019t know how closely he\u2019s involved in the show now but, in the very beginning, he did interviews and really promoted the show. What has that been like knowing that there are kernels of somebody\u2019s real story in this fictional story?<\/p>\n

\n\tThere are kernels of so many people\u2019s stories in this story, and it all started with Spencer Paysinger. We\u2019re very close, and I tell them all the time, \u201cThank you for living a life that was inspiring enough that it made us want to tell this story.\u201d The reason it says \u201cinspired by a true story\u201d as opposed to \u201cbased on a true story\u201d is because we knew we were going to take liberties. I feel bad because out in the world, people often mistake Spencer James\u2019s history for Spencer Paysinger\u2019s stories and are really shocked when they find out that his dad is still alive [unlike Spencer James\u2019s biological father Corey James who died in season two or his father figure Billy Baker who dies in season five] or that he never got shot [as Spencer James did in a drive-by shooting in season two], and it\u2019s like, y\u2019all, it\u2019s a TV show.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, the kernel of it is inspired by his life. But of course, we were going to take liberties in dramatic effect, and ultimately morph into a story that really was about not just Spencer\u2019s journey, but that full ensemble that really spoke to not just Black teens in America, but to families raising these teens in America, the village, what that looked like, and what pursuing a dream under that context looks like \u2014 a dream that many people think is impossible<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was so amazing to have Spencer around. He was always ducking in and out of the writers room. My rule was always \u201cyour life inspired this show, you are always welcome here. If you want to sit in on the writers room, if you want to come sit in on set.\u201d He was always a phone call away if we had questions about something that had really happened and wanted to make sure we were authentically portraying it on the show. He always made himself available, and also had a wonderful understanding that \u201cthis is a TV show that is inspired by my life, but is not my life.\u201d Spencer always understood how all of that came into the jumbo pot to create the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking of a jumbo pot, how did you decide to bring in Cassius and KJ, and then link them to this Baker lineage as well as the whole next generation All American cast?<\/p>\n

\n\tI knew I wanted to bring in a new generation and bring it back to Beverly and Crenshaw High Schools. I knew I was going to make Jordan a coach. One of the things that has always been part of the show, in addition to football and the soapy love triangles and everything else, is there\u2019s always been some kind of mystery [of paternity] involved in the early seasons. \u201cIs Billy Spencer\u2019s father?\u201d Then it was, \u201cOkay, wait, is he Dylan\u2019s father?\u201d There\u2019s always been some sort of mystery that tied to family, so as we were looking in and bringing in the new generation, I was exploring where we could find a connection to our existing James and Baker families that would feel organic [and] give us a little bit of that mystery, but also stay true to the heart of the show, which is \u201cfamily is complicated, but, at the end of the day, nothing is more important than family, even if it takes us on a whole journey to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThen we started realizing we had something in the idea that Grandma Mary wasn\u2019t perfect, and that is something we talked about on the show before. And with Grandpa Willie still being part of the show, we started to realize what if it is something from their past, and what if it ties to Billy in that way? Because they\u2019d lost Billy, the Bakers, especially Jordan, would be so invested in finding new additional family members because they, more than anyone, know how short and precious life is. Having lost Billy, they would have an extra motivated interest in figuring out if they had other family out there, especially family that came from Billy\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat was how we ended up coming up with Cassius and the whole idea of Billy having a half-brother that had been given up for adoption. And because of the things he didn\u2019t know had happened, he was raised with a grudge that the Bakers had the life he should have had and raised a child to believe that as well. And, what does that look like when those two families collide? So it\u2019s the sins of the fathers sort of being revisited on the next generation, and how do they heal generational wounds? <\/p>\n

\n\tEven in the eighth and final season, you still gave the newer cast their own stories, with KJ, Khalil and especially Amina, with Tori sandwiched in between. Why was that important?<\/p>\n

\n\tWe brought in new characters to be the next generation of the show. Not just to service, Jordan, Layla and Coop storylines, but to be legitimate new leads, the new generation. That meant that, in addition to the storylines that supported Jordan\u2019s as our lead of the show and Layla\u2019s and Coop\u2019s, we wanted people to feel like they were getting to know this new generation and could pick sides. I don\u2019t know that I expected them to pick sides in the love triangle so quickly. God bless the KJ and Amina shippers, and the Khalil and Amina shippers out there, and the Khalil and Tori shippers. I love you guys for being so invested in their journeys.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe wanted to bring them in not just as supporting characters, but also as characters worthy of their own storylines and their own journeys. They\u2019re such incredible human beings. Incredible actors. Nate McIntyre [Nathaniel Logan McIntyre] who plays KJ, I said it in his audition and I say it again today, that boy\u2019s a star. He\u2019s going to have a tremendous career.<\/p>\n

\n\tThey had big shoes to fill, in terms of leaping onto a moving train that had been moving already for six seasons at full speed. They had to jump onto that moving train and take over driving it, and they did. Truthfully, to me, that\u2019s harder to come into a legacy show like that and really carve out a space for yourself. I\u2019m really proud of them for what they did.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAll American finale.<\/p>\n

\n\tCan you talk about the ICE storyline with Amina. Why was taking a stand with ICE the right thing to do for the story?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat is also something that\u2019s always been part of the show. It was interesting reading some people\u2019s reaction to this [storyline] because some people were like, all of a sudden now they\u2019re taking a stance on things, and not sticking to just football. I wanted to be like, Have you watched the series? Because it is something that has always been a fabric of the show. That has been very important to me: reflecting the reality of what our teens deal with in real life.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s why we had the \u201cJustice for Tamika Pratt\u201d storyline. It is why there were so many of the mental health storylines we did with Layla. It is all grounded in what our teenagers today are dealing with so that it also feels like when they\u2019re watching the show, they feel like, \u201cI can relate to those issues. I can relate to what Layla\u2019s going through. I can relate to Liv wanting to take a stand on justice for Tamika Pratt and police brutality and what was happening. I could understand Amina wanting to protect her teacher and her fellow classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year the ICE of it all was because that was prevalently what we were seeing affecting our communities. Graduation. Again, I speak about the fact that my son was leaving for college. During his graduation, and as other graduation ceremonies were happening, I was seeing teens have to deal with the fact that there was an ICE presence off campus, or were worried about going to school because on their way home from school they might not make it home because of ICE stops. ICE wasn\u2019t just something that was affecting the grown ups [and what] the adults are dealing with, and the kids don\u2019t know what was happening. It was very much affecting teenagers in this country.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was hard for me to tell a story that\u2019s taken place in current day and not incorporate the reality that our teens don\u2019t just get to be teens. That has never been our reality, and so there\u2019s always part of what is happening in the bigger world. And usually, it\u2019s also the youth that are leading the movement. It was important to me to continue to honor that legacy of the show, so this season, it was ICE.<\/p>\n

\n\tTalk about connecting the two generations through Khalil helping Liv so that she would not miscarry her twins.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe knew we had to give birth to the James twins. There was no way I was ending the show without Spencer and Olivia\u2019s family being complete. It really was the ultimate thing that brought both generations of the shows together. Even last season, Spencer and Darnell all came back and shout out to Da\u2019Vinchi, he\u2019s amazing, and were really sort of part of KJ and Khalil\u2019s story, and [played a part in] really sort of bringing Jordan and Cassius together and all of that stuff. It was very important to us that it not just be the new generation and now it\u2019s just its own thing, but that it was continually part of the ongoing legacy of the show and the ongoing relationships and characters we\u2019ve fallen in love with over the years.<\/p>\n

\n\tNothing brings families together more than birth and death. Knowing we were going to do the birth of the twins, how do we bring those back together in a way that truly has an impact, not just on Spencer and Olivia and Jordan, that\u2019s his twin sister going through this, and his best friend\u2019s children, and Layla and Coop, but also the new generation who don\u2019t know Liv as well because she\u2019d already moved to New York by the time they were really ensconced as part of the vortex and part of the family? It was a no-brainer. For it to be Khalil, because the Bakers had given him so much; Jordan has sacrificed so much for him, and they\u2019re the reason why he has a step forward in life. There was no way he was not going to honor that by making sure that the next generation of the Bakers made it into the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a nice way to bring him and his mom together too.<\/p>\n

\n\tAbsolutely. To truly start to mend that fence, his mother had a unique set of skills he needed at the time, and it gave her an opportunity to finally show up for him in a way that she hadn\u2019t prior to this in his life, and it was the bridge that began their journey to healing their relationship.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe way All American empowered all the athletes, the young athletes with the showcase and Spencer James in the end, is such an important narrative in sports right now.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show is about football, and so much of football isn\u2019t just about the game being played on the field, it\u2019s about all of it, right? It\u2019s why we had Billy doing financial literacy courses for his football players in high school so that they would understand their contracts when they were older. This was another part of it, wanting to be traded, wanting to come home and play. The business side of professional football is also part of the story, and this just felt like a really great way to honor the football legacy of the show, while also bringing it back to these characters and what\u2019s important to them, which is family.<\/p>\n

\n\tCatch season eight of All American on The CW app or watch all eight seasons on Netflix when the final season drops October 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[This story contains major spoilers from the All American series finale, \u201cTo Live and Die in L.A.\u201d] At…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[303362,156,111,139,303363,69,303364,437],"class_list":["post-615832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-all-american","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nkechi-okoro-carroll","tag-nz","tag-taye-diggs","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}