Will Emmy Rossum Make a Guest Appearance in the 'Shameless' Series Finale?

The Gallaghers are back for one final season! Earlier this year, it was announced that the hit comedy-drama series Shameless was renewed for Season 11, but it would sadly be its last. 

While fans are excited to watch how the writers will wrap up the chaotic storylines for these South Side residents, the biggest question on everyone's mind is: Will Emmy Rossum return? Keep reading to find out more about the Showtime series's curtain call. 

The Season 9 finale of Shameless bid farewell to Emmy's beloved character, Fiona. As the eldest child in the family, Fiona's storylines centered around constantly being burdened with taking care of her much younger siblings while trying to get out of the poverty-stricken neighborhood and lifestyle that she grew up in. 

After a lot of trouble with the law, battling sobriety, numerous failed relationships, and the fact that her siblings were old enough to take care of themselves, Fiona decided to finally leave Chicago. 

In 2018, the actress announced her decision to leave the show in a lengthy, heartfelt social media post.

Months later, Emmy opened up to Shape about wanting to pursue other career endeavors. "I've learned a lot about myself as a person and as an actor. I want to leave the show while I still love it, and I know the door is open to come back if that feels right," she revealed. "The way I look at it is that the end of one thing is the beginning of something else."

Adding, "I couldn't be more thrilled to spend time writing, directing, and seeing what other characters I want to play. It's both scary and wonderful."

At this time, it has not been announced if Emmy will be making a cameo appearance in the final season, but fans surely hope she will once again walk through the Gallagher household one last time.

Showrunner John Wells spoke to Entertainment Weekly about Emmy's possible return.   

"I’ll certainly ask her," he said. "She’s very busy and she does a lot of other things. We all love each other and we’ve been through wonderful things together, so I’ll ask her and hopefully, she’ll be available at the time that we do it." 

He continued, "But we’re so far from knowing what that would be and when that would be, and she’s just started on her new project for the Peacock, Angelyne, so I’m going to leave her to that for quite some time — until I start bugging her."

Season 11 of Shameless premiered Sunday, Dec. 6, and the current health crisis has been a major storyline this season. Yes, the Gallaghers are also facing the coronavirus pandemic (also known as COVID-19). All season, the show's characters have been wearing masks. Well, everyone except Frank (William H. Macy). 

“Frank, by definition, sees himself as a libertarian,” John told TVLine. “So he thinks the whole thing’s a little bit of a plot. You never know with Frank whether he means it or whether he’s just trying to get a rise out of you.” 

The showrunner also revealed that even though most of the Season 11 scripts were written, the writers decided that it was important to address the real-life pandemic in the series.

“We decided it would really be impossible to not deal with the current issues in Shameless,” he explained to the outlet. “We’d written an awful lot of the episodes. We went back and put them into the world that we’re experiencing now."

But despite going through the whole pandemic without a mask, Frank is now facing his mortality as he seems to overdose ahead of the finale. Could this be what brings Emmy back for the show's season finale?

Given that Fiona held the family together for most of the series, the death of their father would seem like the right thing to bring her back for, but again, it depends on Emmy's availability for filming.

At this time, there's no word whether or not she'll be in the finale, and Emmy has made no public confirmation either way.

To know for sure, you'll have to tune into the series finale when it airs on April 11 at 9 p.m. EST on Showtime.