There have been a lot of questions about exactly who, of the graduating seniors, would be coming back to Glee next season. It was announced at the FOX upfronts on Monday that Season 4 would function as a “show within a show” with the action split between the high school glee club members at McKinley, and graduates Kurt (Chris Colfer), Finn (Cory Monteith) and Rachel (Lea Michele) studying dramatic arts in New York City.
But what of the other 5 graduates including Mercedes (Amber Riley), Puck (Mark Salling), Santana (Naya Rivera), Mike (Harry Shrum Jr) and Quinn (Dianna Agron)?
Glee co-creator, Ryan -Murphy, tells the Vulture blog that everyone who wants to come back is welcome. Only, they won’t necessarily appear in all 22 episodes.
“We had a meeting, and you know we’ve become like a family, and I said to them, ‘Anybody who wants to stay on the show will stay on the show,'” he said. To be clear, that includes McKinley staff played by Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, and Jayma Mays. “They’re all coming back,” Murphy continued. “Anyone who is a regular is coming back. Everyone said yes.”
At the same time, Murphy isn’t specifying how long “coming back” means for certain characters. “It doesn’t mean everyone will be doing 22 episodes, but everyone wants to stay in our family and our world,'” he said. “I wanted to make sure those actors know that if they want to have a home, they have a home. If they want to explore new and different things while also having a home, that is also an option.”
It sounds like for those who don’t become part of the NYC split narrative, their roles will be reduced to special appearances. Glee has to be careful not to bloat a cast that’s already pretty unwieldy to begin with. I have real misgivings about this complicated sounding show within a show. It’s too bad Ryan and co. couldn’t spin Kurt, Rachel and Finn off onto another series, but with Glee’s ratings down dramatically, losing its biggest stars to a spin-off was likely not an option.
