'Bones' creator Hart Hanson responds to David Boreanaz's tweets

Bones creator Hart Hanson went on a Twitter hiatus after the show’s May finale, but he says “about 400 e-mails” alerted him to comments star David Boreanaz made on Twitter Wednesday night about next month’s San Diego Comic-Con appearance “quite possibly” being the show’s last. Boreanaz also included comments about being “a free agent” come next spring, noting “you must always keep your options open.” Are the show’s producers, who returned to the writers’ room on Monday, plotting season 8 as though it’s the series’ last? No, Hanson tells EW exclusively. “We are in no way planning for it to be the last season. I mean anything can happen in a complicated world,” he says, “but we’re very, very confident in having at least a season 9, and I can see as far as season 10 before my eyes get misty.”

Some fans are wondering if this is Boreanaz, whose contract is up at the end of season 8 along with costar Emily Deschanel’s, starting negotiations early. “If he is, then man, hats off to him. I would like him to consult with my agents next time if he’s thinking that far in advance,” Hanson says, with a laugh. “Really, I think more likely he’s just playing around…. If you cross Tom Sawyer with Ferris Bueller, you get David Boreanaz. He loves a brouhaha. That should be his middle name. But I don’t think, even for him, he meant to cause this brouhaha.” Hanson can’t completely rule it out though. “All his incendiary tweets,” he says, with another laugh, “have an element of truth to them. It’s never out of nowhere. It’s always connected to something, and his deal is up at the end of season 8, so it’s like, ‘Hey, how much do you love me?’ It’s possible. But again, that’s awfully far in advance.”

Boreanaz has shown no signs of weariness or dissatisfaction with the series, Hanson says. “I believe he is certainly hoping for season 9. I don’t think he’s getting tired of it. I think he’ll probably want a little more money when he next has a chance, but that’s completely par for the course. That’s just the way things go,” he says. But for now, “I know him well enough after all these years. He’s just having some fun,” he says.

Hanson will be writing the season 8 opener with fellow exec producer Stephen Nathan. Brennan (Deschanel), who’s being framed for murder by serial killer/hacker Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds), is still on the run, and Pelant is “free and thriving” at the start of the episode. “I think the end of the first episode could be a cliffhanger in its own way. This story is giving us a lot of mileage,” Hanson says. “I’m knockin’ on wood because we haven’t written it yet, but I think it might be our best season opener.”

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Yikes? David Boreanaz teases possible end to ‘Bones’ on Twitter

‘Bones’ creator Hart Hanson talks season finale and what’s next for Brennan, Booth, and Pelant