There’s no dodging the issue — all of the Glee characters who were juniors this past season will graduate from McKinley High in May 2012, with their portrayers (presumably) leaving the show.

 

Speaking on Ryan Seacrest’s radio show Friday morning, Glee creator Ryan Murphy held firm to his previously revealed transition plan, saying that for original characters such as Rachel, Finn, Quinn and Puck, “This next [season] will be their senior year, and then that [they] will graduate.”

 

“We didn’t want to have a show where they were in high school for eight years,” he explained. “We really wanted to be true to that experience.”

 

To proactively fill the void (Murphy said he’s loath to use the words “eliminating or replacing”), brand-new, younger characters will be woven into McKinley’s ranks over the coming season — a few in the fall, and a couple more at midseason. Only one of the newbies, however, will be the product of the Glee Project reality show now airing on Oxygen.

 

“There’s a couple rumors floating around, that half the cast is go to be replaced by the winner of The Glee Project, which is not true,” Murphy told Seacrest. Rather, only the singular winner of that reality competition will join Glee, for at least seven episodes.

 

Murphy notes that while his original young cast will leave “sort of an indelible mark,” he is looking forward to the challenge of introducing America to a new wave of relatively unknown talents poised to generate fresh buzz (and, who knows, maybe land in a controversial Rolling Stone layout). Besides, not everyone is leaving; Murphy envisions Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch as “the male and female lynchpins of the series” even as young’uns come and go.

 

But, he says, Glee “is a celebration of youth and talent and … finding those young unknown people and giving them an opportunity to break into the business and become stars is a really fun and exciting thing, and is the spirit of the series.”

I am going to be suicidal when Rachel leaves. :( I need my weekly Lea Michele dosage of amazingness.

I predicted this last year. I knew they were gonna do a "skins". They wanna re brand the show. But i bet when they do, it doesn't work out. I don't see why we can't follow Rachel and the gang to college. Of course they all wouldn't be at the same college.

This is the logical way of doing it - the fact that Glee lives off parody and ridiculousness also opens up the possibility for "surprise" returns for the original cast at various times in the future.

I don't think this will work. I never watch Skins, but I think I heard people saying that didn't work when they changed the cast? Keeping Will & Sue won't help at all - who cares about Will more than most of the other cast? I would rather have some kind of spin-off, where a few of them go to New York or something of that sort. Yes, people will probably like some of the new cast, but I doubt it will work if they get rid of pretty much all of the originals :(

Nah it didn't really work with Skins.

 

I just don't want the Glee franchise to be ruined. Keeping Will and Sue would not work either.

 

If they called it Glee 2.0 where its set in a different state, different school and different teachers. Hmm Maybe it could work. Therefore it has no direct link to the original.

I knew this would happen but SANTANA :cry: And if we're having a cast revamp, I'd rather they went with David John's idea of a whole revamp in a totally new school with totally new characters. Especially if staying at McKinley means we have more of Will, Sue and Beiste.... And if they MUST stay at McKinley, they should recruit some of the lower years into New Directions next season to introduce them, instead of just springing them on us. Lea will probably want to concentrate on Broadway, but maybe Rachel could be hired as director of ND or something? Though it would be kind of out of character, Rachel wouldn't want to be training the other stars, she'd want to be out on the stage.

Edited June 18, 201114 yr by Liаm

I'd rather Glee just ended when the characters graduate, it wouldn't be the same with new people :(

They could just do a One Tree Hill where two seasons = one school year? Would make a lot more sense. The audience usually don't take kindly to the older cast being replaced by newer cast (see HSM)

Can't they just make Lea Michelle the Glee teacher? :(

Can't they just make Lea Michelle the Glee teacher? :(

It'd not make sense for several reasons but i'd really love that tbfh.

Edited June 18, 201114 yr by P∆V‡L

Inevitable. The dip in quality in Season 2 was so great that frankly a part of me wants the to end Glee completely after the third season but if they'e going to continue with a new cast then it makes sense for them to start introducing them next season.

I like that idea tbh. And i think it could be a great move. Plus they were obviously running out of ideas with the current characters i suppose. And tbh the whole new season with oldies would've been boring and made the show die anyway imo.

 

USA ain't Britain so we can't know how public will perceive the cast change (Skins and all that).

The US react badly to cast changes. Scrubs is a great example. Revamp cast, total flop.

Hmmmm. I don't know about this.

 

No Santana, Mercedes, Rachel, Brit or Quinn sounds like a terrible idea to me tbh.

 

 

 

I do believe the show should die at the end of season 3 [Have them win nationals in the second last ep, then the last ep show them coming back to rule the school/moving on to life after school etc] before it becomes drawn out, tired and a parody of it's former self.

Well it's been sort-of confirmed that Brittany will stay.

 

However the problem with cast changes is that (like with "Skins"), the new year always appear to be an over-the-top version of their peers. But essentially their the same people. And it doesn't work.

DS article:

 

Glee creator Ryan Murphy has revealed that not all of the show's cast will leave at the end of the upcoming third season.

 

Murphy confirmed last week that he plans to refresh the show's cast at the end of the 2012 season by having many of the Glee club members graduate high school and leave the series.

 

Glee has so far been purposefully vague about the students' ages. Murphy has now claimed that there are several characters who are not yet seniors and will stay on for a potential fourth season.

 

"I would say there are some people who are not seniors and there are some people that are really intellectually challenged," Murphy told EW. "Like, you know that Britney is pulling straight Fs."

 

Murphy added that while older characters like Finn, Quinn and Puck are likely to leave at the end of the third season, he plans to use some of the show's newer characters to help in the transition.

 

"Chord [Overstreet]is not a senior. I believe Darren [Criss is not a senior]," he added, when pressed as to who was staying on. "There's a group of them. But this year we will be adding new people."

 

When asked whether those who are leaving would ever be asked to make guest appearances, Murphy said that he didn't think it would be a good idea.

 

Glee will return for its third season in September.

 

 

So Brittany will probably be held back and a few of the Glee club may not yet be seniors. I was thinking actually of why they've been vague with ages - this must be it.

Recently, series creator Ryan Murphy freaked out Glee fans by revealing that the student characters on the show will graduate in 2012 and new student stars will arrive. Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch will remain as "the male and female lynchpins of the series", Murphy told Ryan Seacrest.

 

Does that mean Colfer and costars will be off the show? Or will there be a spin-off series?

 

"I don't know what I can say on camera with a straight face and what I can't!" Colfer replies nervously when I ask him for the dish. "I would just tell the fans: Don't be worried. That's all I'm gonna say because a lot of fans are worried that the characters are going to graduate and leave the show, but that's not necessarily the case. Don't fret."

Sam, Brittany and Blaine I suppose could be justified in being kept on, though Blaine would really have to move to New Directions. They have been vague with a lot of the characters ages, and if we ignore the fact we've seen a lot of them in classes together then I suppose it'll be fine.

They are so blatantly going to do a Glee New York spin off with Rachel and possibly Kurt with guest apperances from others.

 

 

I hope Lea stays, although I get the impression she won't! :( Gutted that Dianna looks set to go, but I believe she's going to be MASSIVE in the next few years and be in major Hollywood blockbusters and stuff.

 

I like that they're going to be introducing new cast members next season as opposed to just throwing us straight in with them for Season 4. It'll give us time to warm to them etc. unlike Skins and the like.