CBSArchie Panjabi is leaving The Good Wife. E! News has confirmed the Emmy-winning actress will exit the hit CBS drama after the current sixth season. Panjabi won the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama trophy after the first season for playing private investigator Kalinda Sharma. Note, The Good Wife has not officially been renewed for a seventh season by CBS.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported on Panjabi's looming exit. She'll star in a 20th Century Fox drama pilot and is now under a talent deal with the studio.
"Archie is an Emmy-award winning dramatic actress, and rightly so," Sharon Klein, executive vice president of casting at 20th Century Fox, said in a statement. "Her work on The Good Wife has been extraordinary, and the time has come for her to star in a project of her own. We couldn't be happier that it will be with us."
"Archie is an amazing actress who helped build Kalinda from the ground up as an enigmatic, powerful and sexy character. It's been a pleasure to write for her, and we'll be sad to see her go; but we still have her for the rest of season six, so let's not exhaust our goodbyes yet. We look forward to meeting all the wonderful new characters Archie brings to the screen. But either way, we're keeping the boots," The Good Wife co-creators Robert and Michelle King said in a statement.
Panjabi was only contracted through season six, the current season.
Kalinda quickly became a fan favorite on the drama. The character became fast friends with Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies), and in the second season, it was revealed Kalinda slept with Alicia's husband (Chris Noth) years before they met. The betrayal divided the characters, and fans have been clamoring for the two to become friendly once again. Since then, Kalinda has been kept off on her own, sort of orbiting around the main stories. Alicia and Kalinda haven't shared a scene in more than 30 episodes.
When asked if Alicia and Kalinda would ever share a scene together again after not having one since season four, Robert King told E! News he thinks so.
"I mean, here's the bottom line. We're trying to follow the reality now that she slept with Peter, which kind of comes back into their lives because one thing when someone's running for office, scandal tends to follow. There is a possibility...First of all, I was surprised people are keeping track. Second of all, part of that has been intentional, which is to try and show this relationship, which was a friendship so strong, is now so worse."
Panjabi's exit isn't the first major Good Wife exit.
The Good Wife lost star Josh Charles during the fifth season. His exit was kept a secret, and his character was killed off halfway through the season.
The Good Wife airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on CBS.