Glee Season 4 Comic-Con Spoilers - Cast and Storyline (VIDEO) (PHOTOS)

GLEE: Pictured L-R: Artie (Kevin McHale), Joe (Samuel Larsen), Rory (Damian McGuinty), Mike (Harry Shum Jr.), Blaine (Darren Criss), Puck (Mark Salling) and Kurt (Chris Colfer) say goodbye to Rachel as she heads to New York in the "Goodbye" season finale episode of GLEE airing Tuesday, May 22 (9:00- 10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. Â©2012 Fox Broadcasting Co. CR: Adam Rose/FOX

Darren Criss, Jenna Ushkowitz, Kevin McHale, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and executive producers,Brad Falchuk, Ian Brennan and Dante DiLoreto participated in today’s panel at Comic-Con in San Diego. Here are some of the spoilers that came out of the discussion.

Read more at TV Line, The Hollywood Reporter, Zap2It, TheInsider, HitFix, Mashable, TVGuide, Entertainment Weekly, Access Hollywood

This year’s Comic-Con panel wasn’t NEARLY as entertaining as 2011, which came in the wake of graduation gate and was FULL OF LULZ. Nevertheless, we’ve got some real Season 4 spoilers to sink our teeth into. For instance, Kurt is still in Ohio helping Will rebuild New Directions. Santana decidedto go for the cheerleading scholarship in Kentucky after all. Finn is MIA!

Also major casting deets. From the Glee Project: Samuel Larsen and Alex Newell are IN. Damian McGinty is OUT (at least for the 1st half of the season).

As an aside, a fan asked a question about the noticeable lack of affection between the LGBT couples on the show, and the producers reaction was interesting. Brad Falchuk actually said that since Kurt is modeled on Ryan Murphy who doesn’t like to be hugged, Kurt doesn’t like PDA either (???). Darren said that he and Chris talked about whether a kiss would be appropriate in a specific scene , but in the end they’d rather not distract from the storytelling. You can watch a video of the entire question and answer below.

Glee Season 4 begins shooting next week.

Read below for SO MUCH MORE.

From the Panel:

NEW: Sarah Jessica Parker’s character will be running Vogue.com – According to Ian, Sarah’s character will be kookier than we’ve seen the actress before. “That’s sort of where we encounter this character, who’s sort of frazzled, eccentric, hilarious.” Access Hollywood
NEW: Kate Hudson’s character name is Cassandra July
Chord Overstreet is in talks to return as a regular. “The Glee Project” winner Samuel Larsen and runner-up Alex Newell will also probably return in some capacity.
Damian McGinty will not be returning: “Damian is not back this year,” said Falchuk. “The second half of the season, who knows. Right now, he won’t be in the first half of the season.”
Vanessa Lengies‘ Sugar Motta is returning. No word yet on Grant Gustin‘s Sebastian
Every SINGLE SERIES REGULAR WILL BE BACK: “Almost no one will be in every episode,” Falchuk says.
When the new season starts: It will be September and Rachel will be at NYADA in New York City, Kurt will still be in Lima, Finn will be in the army and Santana–despite receiving funds from her mom to move to NYC–is a cheerleader at The University of Louisville.
Kurt will help Will repopulate New Directions, which is now half it’s size and will struggle to increase it’s ranks. “He’s the one person who’s sort of aimless and it’s a little heartbreaking, but he’s Kurt Hummel and Kurt Hummel lands on his feet,” Brennan said.
On SHATTERING each and every one of Kurt’s dreams: ” “Kurt to me is one of the most interesting characters because he has to face the most diversity,” says Falchuk, “he’s Kurt in Lima, Ohio, and because of that he has this ability to be resilient than probably any other character on the show and it was interesting for us to put him in a tough spot.” (UGH. At one time, Ryan Murphy said he was only interested in making Kurt a winner. What happened to that?)
Kurt will eventually join Rachel in NYC: “Those two are best friends,” says co-creator Brad Falchuk, “you can’t keep them apart for long.” (UGH. Brad. How about “Kurt takes off for NYC to follow his dreams.” Why does his fate have to be tied to Rachel? Kurt better be more than her “fabulous” sidekick. Grr)
Santana “might be” in New York eventually, says Ian Brennan
Finn is MIA: “He went off on this adventure and nobody really knows what happened to him,” Falchuk explains.
We’ll see footage of Mercedes in Los Angeles or making her way there. “How it sort of happens for her is interesting.”
New characters: Jake is a bad boy who sorta just appears in the school.
New Faces on Glee: Puck’s little brother will join the choir and Rachel will have a new roommate. The producers are looking for a lot of “big voices.” “We’re definitely looking to repopulate the choir room and casting some new people to bring in there, the idea is to keep that part of the show vibrant,” Falchuk said.
Rachel will ponder what “setting her free” truly means and wondering if she should date other people.
Sue will have had her baby: “When we come back in, Sue has had her baby although we still don’t know who the celebrity father of her child is,” Brennan said. The big reveal will be in the 1st half of the season and will be “quite funny”
More artist tributes: “There’s an artist big enough who will take two episodes because the music catalogue is so big. That’s how large the person is. It’s a man.”
Britney tribute confirmed: Falchuk confirmed that a second Britney Spears tribute will air this fall — specifically, Episode 2. Heather Morris and Lea Michele will be at the center of it.
Brad Falchuk on blending Lima and NYC: “It’s about making sure those worlds talk to each other in an interesting way. To illustrate this, Falchuk explained that second episode, a Britney Spears tribute, won’t just echo through McKinley’s halls. “What’s interesting is how we take the Britney theme to New York and how it effects Rachel.”
Lea Michele on Rachel’s new life: “[Rachel Berry] in a school with 1,800 Rachel Berry’s” – and while she’ll be surrounded by other like-minded ladies, Rachel won’t have anything resembling a strong support system.
Darren Criss wants to see a Klaine shake up : “I think we all want to see them be together as long as possible but it’s good to have things shake up a little bit. For everybody the new format of the show is going to shake a lot of cool stuff up and it can only be a good thing.”
New Directions will face tough challenges: “They’re underdogs again,” Brennan says. “They won Nationals and that lasts for 2 minutes. That room is half empty and they’re desperately trying to get more kids for Sectionals.”
Brennan pitching a story about Artie’s mother. “I want her to be a hoarder,” he said to laughs. Kevin wants Katey Sagal and Harry Connick Jr to play his parents.
Darren wants Peter Gallagher to play Blaine’s dad, “We have the same eyebrows,” he says.
Falchuk says Kate Hudson will play a fun character: She’s “The difference between the Will version of teaching and one that’s based more on negative reinforcement. The challenge for Rachel, coming out of being the biggest star in the high school show choir world, it’s time to start anew.”
Nene Leakes will return as swim coach Roz Washington: She’ll remain a thorn in Sue’s side, but the two will decide to gang up on the inept Principal Figgins.
Wema wedding? Will and Emma will still be engaged but an actual wedding isn’t on the immediate horizon.
A fan asked why every single Glee couple kissed during a particular scene (I’m assuming it’s the “Tongue Tied” number) but not Kurt and Blaine: “In one day, we had 50 actors on stage, 800 background (extras), and we did 100 different shots on that day,” Di Loreto recalled. “There was certainly no intention to exclude everybody. There are just times where we have to remind ourselves it’s a television show and we have to make it in eight days… It becomes almost an impossible task to service them all. It’s never an exclusionary moment.”
Falchuk says the network isn’t calling asking for no Klaine kiss.
Falchuk says Kurt hates PDA.
Fan asked if they’ll make Jewish people real and not just punchlines. Crowd becomes uneasy. Darren jokes, “The reason I’m growing the beard is because I’m going to play a rabbi next season.”
Lea wanted to sing “To Love You More” instead of “It’s all coming back to me now” for Nationals.
Lea and Naya want to sing Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own”
Naya Rivera says she’s still working on her album but has a dance pop single ready called “My Heart”.
Lea on Rachel and Quinn getting it on: “It seems to be the natural progression since she’s single now! Never say never with Glee!”

From William Keck of TV Guide reporting from the press line:

Rachel will be in the dance studio with Kate Hudson next week and and will be singing a Barbra Streisand song in th premiere.
Brittany news – there will be some sort of stage catastrophe during next Britney Spears tribute episode.
Darren Criss says he and Chris Colfer feel like Blaine and Kurt feel like an old married couple and would like the couple shaken up!
Glee producers say they are casting a new McKinley hunk. Darren Criss says he’d like Blaine to be tempted to cheat on Kurt with him.
Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz are pushing for Artie & Tina to reunite now that Mike’s gone.

From Mashable:

Ian Brennan

New York/Ohio time split that you see on the show will be similar to how the McKinley/Dalton time split was.
Finished writing third episode of season four right now.
Rachel will be in every episode. “It’ll be so good to see Rachel in college.”
Finn is trying to deal with Rachel gone.
Decision on breaking them up in finale: We talked about it a lot, but that wasn’t originally how that story was going to end. It was a much much longer, complex story. In the end, it just felt right to do at this point. Rachel will really be struggling in the new season with a new life. “I’ve moved there once myself, it’s a very scary experience. It’s a whole different kind of storytelling.”
Rachel will be in contact with McKinley almost to a funny point.

Lea Michele

“We have a good idea of where Finn and Rachel are going. We want to see what it’s like for them to be apart for a while now. I think that’s the dynamic we’ve seen over the series where we pull them apart, put them back together, etc. They will always be involved with one another whether or not they’re dating. They’ll be in contact.”

Jenna Ushkowitz and Kevin McHale

How they each see their characters evolving: Kevin – it’s an opportunity for them to step up. This season will be us stepping up like the seniors did last season.
Kevin: Wants to perform Let It Be, Jenna: Sara Barilles or Demi Lovato.
Jenna found out recently, when the press found out, that everyone was returning for season four. Kevin had a feeling everyone would be back in some capacity.
Kevin sees Artie going into more of the behind the scenes aspect of the performing arts in the future.
Kevin hopes there’s going to be romance for Artie coming up. Really thought he’d get Sugar, then he did not. Jenna thinks Tina will stay with Mike.

Comic Con – 1st 23 minutes