Rob McElhenney Riles Up ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Fans with a Photo from the Season 17 Writers’ Room

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 is underway — at least in the writers’ room, that is.

It’s been one year, four weeks and five days since the last new episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia aired, but who's counting, right? Well, the fans, for one — anyone who has scrolled the nearly 1.2 million user-strong subreddit or peeked in the replies of any one of Rob McElhenney's tweets in that time will see that the greater It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia online following has been dealing with this dearth of new Always Sunny content like they're a sober Dennis, Dee, Mac and Charlie locked in the bathroom in “The Gang Gets Quarantined.” 

Between the end of The Always Sunny Podcast and McElhenney’s many side projects that some spiteful fans think are distracting the series creator from his first hit, the wait for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 has been both too anxious and too extended for the show’s most loyal viewers.

Thankfully, McElhenney has heard the cries of the thousands of replies under his every social media post, and he treated Always Sunny fans to a welcome sign that Season 17 is on its way when, late yesterday, he posted an Instagram picture of the writers’ room for the upcoming season with the caption, “Live from the writers’ room. Sunny Season 17!”

On Twitter, McElhenney posted the writers' room picture in a reply to a fan who pleaded with the Always Sunny creator, “sir can we get something from the writers room soon? a group selfie? some blurred out post-its? i’ll take a picture of a blank wall at this point we’re starving without the podcast.”

Of course, while the news that the Always Sunny writers are hard at work on the new season was more than welcome in the show's fan forums, the internet didn't fail to dissect the photo for faults and possible bad omens. Within minutes, MacElhenney’s photo shot to the top of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia subreddit, where one Redditor wondered, “Megan? Glenn? In the season 17 writers room? Not physically.” referencing co-star and co-creator Glenn Howerton as well as the show’s esteemed writer, executive producer and podcaster Megan Ganz.

The absence of Howerton and Ganz from the group photo seems to be the main point of concern about McElhenney’s update, with another fan writing, “Surprised to not see Megan here. I wonder if she’s still a part of it or if she just missed the picture.”

“She’s taking the picture,” another replied. “Only one who knows how to work the camera.”

Still, it wasn’t all panic from the Always Sunny fanbase following McElhenney’s post — other long-time viewers jumped at the chance to offer their unrequested episode ideas, including one fan who claims that it’s high time that Mac gets a serious boyfriend on the show, preferably played by Will Arnett.

Unfortunately, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 17 still doesn’t have a premiere date. But if Danny DeVito is to be believed, when it finally happens, they're gonna get real weird with it.