How I Met Your Mother Season 9 spoilers and more spinoff details revealed

How I Met Your Mother will air the remainder of its Season 9 episodes almost uninterrupted until the series finale on March 31. A spinoff entitled How I Met Your Father has been announced, and we have some more information on both series.

Creators Carter Bays and Craig Thomas spoke to IGN and delivered a wealth of information on both shows. Some of the highlights include:

-       They have not finished writing the HIMYM series finale yet, but they "have a lot of ideas" and have almost "nailed down everything leading up to that final script" and "know what happens in the final script," according to Bays. Thomas said the penultimate episode is written.

-       The Cheers finale has influenced them.

-       They know the last couple of minutes of the show, including which character would speak the last line.

-       Marshall's last slap to Barney could be "an un-slapped slap that we know will happen someday down the road." Another alternative is that, after the series ends, TheSlapBetCountdown.com could start a new clock that ends in 25 years, and they'll reveal when the slap happens at that point. This is not a joke, apparently. They even talked to Neil Patrick Harris and Jason Segel about it!

-       They want the How I Met Your Father spinoff to have a fresh format rather than be a retread of HIMYM.

-       The main character is name Sally, and she "is very different form Ted Mosby. We met her at a very different and tumultuous moment in her life. Right away, it feels different and interesting to us as writers," Thomas said.

What do you make of all this, HIMYM fans? Will you be watching How I Met Your Father? Let us know in the comments below.