‘Last Man Standing’ Season 7 Air Date, Spoilers: Mandy and Boyd Recasts Explained

“Last Man Standing” Season 7 has finally premiered on Fox, and long-time fans who haven’t been following the news over the summer were surprised to see two members of the Baxter family being recast.

For those who didn’t know yet, Molly Ephraim decided not to reprise her role as Mandy Baxter-Anderson because of her other projects.

“When the show was cancelled… [Molly] got involved in some different things, so when [Last Man Standing] came back, she was not able to do it,” “Last Man Standing” executive producer Matt Berry explained at the Television Critics Association summer press tour last month (via TVLine.com)

“It’s unfortunate. We love her deeply. She’s a big part of who we were. But [it’s] exciting for us to look around and see who we can get to play that character. We want someone to come in and not play Molly Ephraim. We want somebody to come in and play Mandy. We’ve seen a lot of great actresses,” he continued.

Based on the “Last Man Standing” Season 7 premiere episode, Molly McCook seemed to be doing quite well as Mandy, and the writers even found ways to poke fun at the recasting by making Kyle (Christoph Sanders) say that he has noticed that his wife was now taller and blonde.

Meanwhile, Flynn Morrison, the actor who played Boyd Baxter also didn’t return. As noted by executive producer Kevin Abbott last month, they decided to bring in Jet Jurgensmeyer and recast the character because they wanted to age him up in “Last Man Standing” Season 7.

“Last Man Standing” Season 7 will continue to air on Fridays at 8/7c on Fox. Aside from McCook and Jurgensmeyer, the sitcom also stars Tim Allen as Mike Baxter, Nancy Travis as Vanessa Baxter, Amanda Fuller as Kristin Beth Baxter, Kaitlyn Dever as Eve Baxter, Christoph Sanders as Kyle Anderson, Héctor Elizondo as Edward "Ed" Alzate, Jordan Masterson as Ryan Vogelson, and Jonathan Adams as Chuck Larabee.