The series finale of New Girl saw Nick Miller wearing a hand cast, but that wasn’t part of the original plan. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl made its debut on Fox in 2011 and was very well received from the beginning, which allowed it to live on for six more seasons, coming to an end in 2018. New Girl was praised for its sense of humor and the performances of its main cast, especially those of Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson, though it wasn’t safe from criticism during its first season.
New Girl followed young, bubbly teacher Jess Day (Zooey Deschanel), who after finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, moved into a loft with three strangers she casually found on the internet. Getting used to a new roommate and starting a new life wasn’t easy for all those involved, but Jess ended up becoming very close to her roommates Schmidt (Greenfield), Nick Miller (Johnson), and Winston (Lamorne Morris). One of the characters that went on to become a big fan-favorite is Nick, the laziest resident of the loft but also one with a good heart, who also ended up marrying Jess and having a family with her. Their relationship was full of ups and downs and lots of unusual yet funny situations, and there was no way they were going to have a “normal” or “conventional” ending – and to add to the quirkiness of it, there’s one element that wasn’t planned and had to be written into the series finale.
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New Girl season 7 began with a time-jump, thus setting the season three years after the events of season 6’s finale. By then, Nick and Jess were back together and Nick was a successful writer after the publishing of his novel The Pepperwood Chronicles. Nick spent most of the season planning how to propose to Jess, which finally happened in the episode “Mario”, and in the following one, they were already planning the wedding. Their big day didn’t go as expected, and Nick and Jess believed their wedding was cursed because they ignored the superstition about sleeping together the night before the wedding being bad luck. After Jess injured her eye, Nick lost his book deal, Aly went into labor, and Russell tried to make one final move on Jess, prompting a fight between him and Nick, the couple finally got married. New Girl’s series finale was set a month after the wedding, and Nick suddenly appeared with a cast on his hand, with no reason for it… in the series, at least.
Speaking to Bustle in 2018, Jake Johnson explained why he wore a cast in the New Girl series finale, and it was all due to an incident while filming the previous episode (“The Curse of the Pirate Bride”). Johnson explained that, while doing the scene where he and Russell (played by Dermot Mulroney) got into a fight, they “banged against a wall” and he knew something wasn’t right. Though he didn’t know he broke his hand at that moment, he started to feel the pain afterward and ended up having to wear a cast. Johnson’s injury was written in, which wasn’t difficult as the next scene was in a hospital, where Nick and Jess ultimately got married. This, of course, means that Nick was wearing the cast at his wedding, but it’s a detail easy to miss as there are more important things happening in the scene.
The series finale of New Girl included a flash-forward during the group’s final game of True American in their beloved loft, showing them still playing this confusing game but with all their children. In that scene, Johnson was standing behind a couch, where he hid his left hand as he was still wearing the cast, and instead high-fived his son with his right hand. Accidents on set happen all the time, and more often than not, the crew has to come up with ways to incorporate the injuries or somewhat explain the sudden appearances of casts, arm slings, and more – but luckily for New Girl, Jake Johnson’s injury was an easy one to handle.
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