Mary J. Blige Will Star in the First Power Spin-Off

The final season of Power is coming this year, but the final episode? That won't be happening until next year.

Friday at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, Starz announced it is splitting the 15-episode final season of Power into two parts, with the first 10 episodes airing weekly starting Aug. 25 and ending in November. The final season will resume with the last five episodes starting in early Jan. 2020.

Power's Season 6 Trailer Looks Like the End of the Road for Ghost

That's a long time to wait to find out what happens to Ghost, Angela Valdes (Lela Loren), Tommy (Joseph Sikora), Tasha (Naturi Naughton), and Tariq (Michael Rainey Jr.), but there's a silver lining: The first spin-off in the suite of Power-verse shows to come, Power Book II: Ghost, is in pre-production now, and Mary J. Blige will star.

"I've been a fan of Power since the very beginning," she told reporters when the news was announced. "I've been a fan of Power forever because it's so relative to how I grew up. I knew so many Tashas and so many Ghosts. I dated so many Ghosts."

Blige said she's a fan of the show because it portrayed the reality of growing up in the inner cities. "It's been my chess game, the way I move in life," she said. "It's just what I grew up doing."

There's more changing: This season also finds the now-iconic theme song "Big Rich Town" reworked a bit. R&B singer Joe has been replaced by Trey Songz. "We wanted to offer a new energy without conceptually changing it," said co-creator and star 50 Cent. " I even left four bars with the previous song because I was afraid to go [too far] away from it. It's giving it a younger, fresher, vibe."

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Power returns for its sixth and final season Sunday, Aug. 25 on Starz.