Exclusive

The Friday Night Lights Storyline (and Romance!) Fans Never Got to See

Exclusive! Grey Damon reveals what the producers original plan was for his character Hastings on the beloved NBC drama. Plus, Aimee Teegarden weighs in on the scrapped movie

By Tierney Bricker Jan 16, 2014 2:45 AMTags
Friday Night Lights, Grey DamonNBC

Clear eyes, full hearts, cutting room floor.

Yes, that would have been the motto for Hastings Ruckle (Grey Damon) during the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights. While Damon was brought on as a series regular, Hastings was given little to do, aside from look inspired by Coach Taylor's epic speeches (so not hard to do, by the way!) and get his fellow team mates to drink moonshine. During the panel for his new CW series Star-Crossed, which also stars Friday Night Lights' Aimee Teegarden, Damon revealed, "My character kind of got cut short because we didn't know the show was going to stop. They had big plans, but when it came down to it, we had to wrap up all the previous cast." 

Those big plans? Damon was hesitant, but said, "They were going to dive into Hastings' personal life, romances, what have you. It was cool. I really would've like to see where it went."

But after the panel, Damon spilled to E! News a bit more about what Hastings' storyline would've been if FNL had gone on longer. (Hint: Vince and Jess fans would not have been pleased!)

"I was going to have problems with my father," Damon spilled. "I think they were haggling with the idea of Jess and Hastings, there was going to be that tension there, and that's why at the beginning of the season you sort of see that."

Going for QB No. 1 Vince Howard's (Michael B. Jordan) girl? Rookie mistake!

But Damon said we actually would've seen the two boys, along with three of the other players, including Luke (Matt Lauria), Tink (LaMarcus Tinker) and Buddy Jr. (Jeff Rosick), really bond. In fact, Damon even calling them "the Lions Five."" and our FNL-loving hearts just grew three sizes!

"We were all going to get into a bunch more shenanigans and what not, like the party," Damon said, referring to the drunken adventure the group went on in "Kingdom" while staying overnight at a hotel for an away game. "We were just going to make a lot of mistakes, but we were going to bond and become this group of really good friends. We were all so different; we were going to explore that a lot. I really would've loved to see that, gone for one more season to wrap it up proper because it was just all of a sudden, oh, we can't go on."

Mathieu Young/The CW

E! News also caught up with Teegarden after the panel for the duo's new sci-fi romance drama and got her thoughts on Peter Berg's confirmation that plans for a Friday Night Lights movie have been scrapped, saying, " We talked about it, some people thought it was a good idea, some didn't. I've come to believe it's probably not a good idea and I seriously doubt it's gonna happen."

For her part, Teegarden, who played Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton's teen daughter Julie Taylor, said, "Honestly, I haven't seen a script or anything like that. I think it's a little too soon for something like that right now, but maybe in the future. Never say never, I suppose."

But would Teegarden even be up for a film? "I guess it would have to depend on making sure everyone was involved and the content of the script and what it was going to bring to the fans that would be worthwhile watching and not just doing something to do something," she explained.

So maybe Texas isn't forever?