Unbeknownst to fans, Haynes, fresh off his exit from Teen Wolf, only signed a two-year deal to play Roy, an unusual move for the studio. Arrow then shocked fans by faking his character's death at first, only to reveal it was a cruel joke. Still, it left the door open for him to return (which he did).
Mer lost her Der in an unthinkable twist. Dempsey was killed off, leaving Ellen Pompeo's character to move on without McDreamy. Series creator Shonda Rhimes cited a similar reason to The Good Wife for killing off the character. "The decision to have the character die the way that he did was not a difficult one in the sense of what were the options?" Rhimes said at the 2015 Summer TCA press tour. "Either Derek was going to walk out on Meredith, and leave her high and dry, and what was that going to mean? That was going to suggest that the love was not true, the thing we had said for 11 years was a lie and McDreamy wasn't McDreamy. For me, that was untenable."
The OC without Marissa Cooper?! The thought alone was blasphemous at the time of the Fox show's heyday…but then it happened. Rumors about whether or not it was Barton's decision to leave swirled for years, but Josh Schwartz has come out and said it was a mutual decision made to shake up the series.
After seven seasons as Christy Plunkett in the hit CBS sitcom, Faris announced in September 2020 that she'd be stepping away from the role to pursue other opportunities, leaving co-lead Allison Janney as the sole central mother days before production on season eight began. The role was not recast, with producers opting to simply write Christy out.