“Glee” creator Ryan Murphy has always been open about his plan to replace many of the youth roles when the current characters graduate, in storyline, at the end of season three.
Still, there had been an expectation that some of the heavy-hitters would remain on board. After all, Lea Michele and Chris Colfer received Emmy nominations for their performances last season and are every bit the stars that Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch are within the “Glee” universe. Season two teases of them building a future in New York only added to speculation that they would get some sort of post-graduation storyline in season four.
According to Murphy, however, both Michele and Colfer would not be part of a fourth “Glee” season, should FOX give it the go-ahead. Cory Monteith, who does not share the critical acclaim of the aforementioned but is every bit as central to the youth storylines, would also not be back.
“You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year,” Murphy tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Murphy added that the new crop of writers, which was brought in for season three, is happy with the decision and anticipates the creative enjoyment of scripting for the characters as they prepare for life outside of William McKinley High School.
