Just last week there were reports that Chord Overstreet, who plays Sam, was out – but then producers backtracked a bit saying Chord was welcome anytime even though his contract had expired.
Today we got the news that Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer are leaving Glee after the third season.
Related: Chord Overstreet Leaving Glee
We have all grown accustomed to cast shifts on our favorite shows, but this move on Glee seems almost insurmountable.
After all - Rachel, Finn, Sam and Kurt are the McKinley High students we fell in love with, and their drama was the reason we started watching the show in the first place.
Are we really ready, and capable, of getting to know an entirely new cast? Can we really let go of Kurt’s struggle with his sexuality and his relationship with his father?
Can we really imagine a show without Flinn?
Upon hearing the news, Lea took to twitter to tell fans,
"We always knew we'd graduate in real time. It’s all part of the plan and it's all good! It’s going to make Season 3 amazing! To Gleeks everywhere, you're in my heart now and forever. Love you all!!! This is just the beginning."
We get the concept – seniors graduate and move on and new freshmen enter the scene and fight their way into the social strata they are thrust in to.
Glee's creator Ryan Murphy hinted to these kinds of massive cast changes last week when he told reporters,
“The show to me is about the way you express yourself as you start to move out into the world as a fresh, young person. Do we really want to have an eight-year high school senior? The only way somebody could stay on the show is if they flunk, and that is always a possibility. I think Brittany is pulling straight F’s.”
With the creation of this years “Glee Project”, it seems producers have fashioned a Glee machine to crank out new potential cast members.
I guess time will tell if America will be patient enough to get involved with a basically brand new cast, but I know a lot of people who will move on to something new.
And if Jane Lynch ever leaves the show is done…
But don’t feel bad for Rachel, Finn, Sam and Kurt – they’re going to be just fine in the real world.
Chris Colfer who plays gay Kurt has already inked a deal with Disney to write new screenplays and movie scripts. His first comedy, “Struck by Lightning” is due out next year.
Related: Chris Colfer Writing Movies for Disney Now
Coffer told Inside TV,
“It was bound to happen sooner or later. I always assumed that Kurt was very young in the original scripts. I knew he was 16, but I didn’t know what grade. Then when it was announced I was leaving, I was like, I guess it’s our senior year next year!”
At least he was nominated for an Emmy for his efforts.
Lea Michele seems to be busy with non-Glee projects as well.
Michele has already landed her first big movie role in the comedy “New Year’s Eve” directed by Garry Marshall and starring Josh Duhamel, Ashton Kutcher, Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Jessica Biel, Alyssa Milano, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Frankie Muniz, John Lithgow, and Sofía Vergara.
That is an impressive list of A-list actors to work with in your first movie.
“New Year’s Eve” will hit theaters in late 2011 and will show how the lives of several couples and singles in New York intertwine and change over the course of New Year's Eve.
Lea has also scored the lead voice role of Dorothy in the animated movie “Dorothy of Oz” due in theaters in 2012.
Watch Lea Michele Interview About Dorothy of Oz
Cory Monteith is also branching out into movies starring as ‘Justin’ in the comedy “Sisters and Brothers”. The movie is due out later this year.
Monteith also worked with Selena Gomez in her romantic comedy “Monte Carlo” - about three young women vacationing in Paris who find themselves whisked away to Monte Carlo after one of the girls is mistaken for a British heiress.
And all Glee cast members are working on “Glee: The 3D Concert Movie” due in theaters this August. It is a concert documentary filmed during the “Glee Live! In Concert!” summer 2011 tour.
We just don’t know if we have the time, or the energy, to get involved with an entirely new cast on Glee without always comparing things to how they were “in the old days…”
And we don’t want the new season to become “The Darren Criss Show” either.
And they really need to stop saying the word “regionals” so much. It makes a great drinking game but they are beating a dead horse already - let’s move on folks.
Time will tell.
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