‘Shameless’ Staged A Twitter Hack To Announce A Fan Favorite Character’s Return

Shameless faces a tough challenge in season 10, which has everything to do with Emmy Rossum’s departure as Fiona Gallagher. That was an unexpectedly strange sendoff (she simply left and skipped her party) but Showtime’s gearing up to fill her enormous shoes, at least partially, by bringing back a fan favorite character. There were multiple options that might have helped in this situation, and sadly, we’re not talking about Justin Chatwin returning as Steve/Jimmy, but what happened instead is a better choice and one that makes sense.

Showtime appears to have made this decision on the heels of Cameron Monaghan declaring that he’d return for season 10, which presumably means that his character’s getting out of prison. His convenient cellmate — and former/current lover, Mickey Malkovich — is now returning to the series (as a regular), too. His previous season 7 departure at the U.S. Mexico border was a real heartbreaker, given that Mickey had always been the series’ most layered character (and Noel Fisher displayed an incredible range of emotion).

Shameless announced Mickey’s return in an “internet” sort of way, of course, by pretending that the series’ Twitter account was hacked by a super “Gallavich” fan. People soon screencapped and reacted to this oddness.

— maria GALLAVICH ENDGAME (@nygmalpha) April 11, 2019

I dropped Shameless years ago but someone hacked the official twitter acc of the show and turned it into a “WE WANT MICKEY BACK” fan protest and I’M LIVING MY BEST LIFESKSKSKJ YALL JUST WON ON THIS DAY I LITERALLY STOPPED WATCHING THE SHOW BECAUSE HE LEFTFJDJDHS @SHO_Shameless pic.twitter.com/Hji362qGm4

— Mile (@Iewisabelle) April 11, 2019

@SHO_Shameless has been hacked and it's the best Thursday night of 2019! #BringMickeyBack pic.twitter.com/gcw6r0Gq0e

— rhage danced with the devil in the pale moonlight (@RhageInACage) April 11, 2019

did shameless PRETEND to get hacked was that REAL or NOT

— gabe (@clownfop) April 12, 2019

did we all get played like was the shameless account hacked by themselves was this all a publicity stunt to announce mickey was coming back

— leanna (@mickeysnoel) April 12, 2019

Someone hacked the @SHO_Shameless and it's all #BringMickeyBack and IM 100% HERE FOR IT. BRING MY BOY BACK

— Elizabeth (@ElizabethM170) April 11, 2019

WHO FUCKING HACKED THE SHAMELESS ACCOUNT IM SHDHFHNSNSJS WHAT IS GOING ON pic.twitter.com/ir96ByOAkX

— jenna✨ (@killjoyandpr0ud) April 11, 2019

Before things carried on too long, Showtime confirmed to TV Line that the news was genuine, and Mickey’s definitely coming back. Cameron Monaghan also stepped in to acknowledge the good news. “Glad we could finally say it,” he tweeted. “Welcome back to #Shameless, @noel_fisher. Missed you, my friend.”

Thank goodness this didn’t go down on April Fool’s Day, right If that was the case, people might not have been so congratulatory about the well-executed publicity stunt. Let’s just hope that Shameless doesn’t bring back Gay Jesus. Ian deserves a much better character arc than that fiasco.

— kayla (@_kaylakristina) April 11, 2019

the shameless twitter got hacked by a gallavich stan. take it in while you can because once showtime gets the account back all the bad fan art will be gone forever

— k8 (@kindofsortofok) April 11, 2019

If @SHO_Shameless hacked their own Twitter account to promote the return of Mickey in season ten, then that was the most genius marketing/PR stunt ever to resonate with their audience.

— Cay (@caylamasters) April 12, 2019

Someone hacked the @SHO_Shameless account and I’m not saying it’s right, but I do agree with it pic.twitter.com/cebGyyn1a7

— Gisselyyy (@_giselmars) April 11, 2019