A Final Season Merits a First Lady: Michelle Obama Will Make a Cameo as Black-ish Makes Its Farewell Lap

Black-ish is going out big—as it should. Kenya Barris’ hit ABC series, which spawned the spinoffs Grown-ish and the now-canceled Mixed-ish (with Old-ish and Brown-ish presumably still in development by the network) will end with its eighth season, as The Root reported in May. And though it’s the final season, the series will be marking at least one first—a former first lady, that is.

Make that a forever first lady, since, with all due respect to Dr. Biden, Michelle Obama reigns supreme in the contemporary imagination of White House matriarchs. And according to The Hollywood Reporter, Mrs. Obama will soon be spending time with the fictional Johnsons, joining former Becoming tour moderator Tracee Ellis Ross, Anthony Anderson and their onscreen tribe for a guest-starring appearance on the comedy.

As reported by THR, “details of the former first lady’s appearance are being kept under wraps for now,” but, as the outlet notes, Mrs. Obama also appeared on the sixth-season finale of Parks and Recreation. She’s also in great company as a political figure on the Los Angeles-based Black-ish, as L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, Stacey Abrams, and former Obama adviser David Axelrod have all previously appeared on the show. And of course, with multiple productions at Netflix under their Higher Ground Productions—including the 2020 Academy Award-winning American Factory—the Obamas are no strangers to production, either—but as Black-ish comes to an end, will Mrs. Obama be playing herself, or flexing some new acting muscles?

No word yet on what point we can expect to see her appear in the season, but “In this day and age it is rare to get to decide when your show should come to an end,” Barris captioned an Instagram post about the final season (h/t THR), “and we are grateful along with ABC to be able to make this final season exactly what we’d hoped for—and to do it with the entire and AMAZINGLY STELLAR cast coming back to close this chapter out with us the right way!”