Person of Interest Producers Haven't Ruled Out a Reboot

It was a disappointment, though not a surprise, for Person of Interest fans last month, when CBS announced that the show's fifth season would not only be its last, but would consist of just 13 episodes that will be burned off at a breakneck, two-a-week pace.

But all may not be lost: As producers and cast members gear up for the final season premiere on May 3, they say they're open to the idea of the show continuing in some form elsewhere.

"The ending, I thought, was really satisfying - and still ever so slightly open-ended, so that if someone, someday wanted to reboot this thing, or have a Chapter 2 of some sort, it wouldn't be out of the question," star Michael Emerson tells TVGuide.com. "There are survivors ... [but] not many."

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With canceled shows including The Killing, Communityand The Mindy Projectfinding new homes on digital platforms like Netflix, Yahoo and Hulu, along with revived versions of series like24 and The X-Files, could Person of Interest be the latest show to get a second chance? "Never say never," executive producer Greg Plageman tells TVGuide.com.

A potential reboot doesn't mean, however, that the June 21 series finale will lack closure. "We had to hurry up and end it. They had 13 episodes to turn a very large, slow-moving boat," Emerson says. "But I think the idea that we had to do it in 13 was actually a plus rather than a minus. I think it allowed the writers' room to set aside their need to create palatable side stories or a murder-of-the-week or whatever, and really just get focused on wrapping up the loose ends of this thing."

Adds executive producer Jonathan Nolan: "I would have loved to have kept making this thing for a long, long time, but you don't want the show to become creatively moribund. We saw the writing on the wall before this season started, but we had the incredible luxury of having 13 episodes to really finish our story. And so, as much as I would have loved to have kept working on the show ... I'm very proud of what we've made here for the final season, and I'm very glad that we had a chance to finish telling our story, an opportunity that's denied to so many great network TV shows. So I'm very satisfied with the way we've told our story, and I certainly hope our fans are."

(Full disclosure: TVGuide.com is owned by CBS.)