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Mandy Moore Says Parts of the This Is Us Series Finale Were Filmed Years Ago

It's been a long time coming. 

By Christopher Rosa
Jack And Rebecca In A Video Store

The highly-anticipated This Is Us series finale airs Tuesday, May 24 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC. Fans have been waiting (or perhaps dreading) this moment all season—but for the cast and creators, it's been years in the making. Literally. 

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The show's creator, Dan Fogelman, tells NBC Insider he's been writing the finale for the past three or four years. "It's been a really long time coming," he says. And Mandy Moore (Rebecca) even shot some scenes from the finale at that time. “To be honest, a lot of what is in the finale for Milo [Ventimiglia, Jack] and I was filmed years ago,” she told Deadline. “So, I don’t even remember what it was. We had a couple of things we shot for this that I’m excited to see. But I read the script and I’m excited to see everyone else’s work. I think it’s really beautiful. In my own selfish way—maybe because my character passed on in the last episode—I felt like last week was the finale and this one feels more like an epilogue in a way. I think it’s a really beautiful way to tie things all together and tie them up in a very satisfactory fashion.”

Fogelman's had the end of This Is Us in his mind for a while, and he tells EW he knew he needed to shoot scenes with the young actors in 2018 to get everything right. "I was a little worried about the amount of time I would have with the kids before they crashed into each other [in terms of physical growth], and we were able to squeak in there," he says. "...The actors never questioned anything. I was like, 'Guys, we're gonna spend an extra four days on set and you're gonna shoot material with the kids that won't air for years and is untethered to anything else you're doing.' And they were like, 'Great!'"

Catch up on This Is Us now on NBC.com