“Glee” To Recast When Characters Graduate

Its a problem almost every TV series with a young cast in school has had to face, they are going to graduate.  To avoid having the same characters in high school longer than they should, "Glee" creator Ryan Murphy told Ryan Seacrest that the current plan for the hit show is to have the current characters graduate at the end of the third season, then bring in new actors discovered on the Oxygen show, "The Glee Project."

"That is true. I don't think of it in terms of eliminating or replacing. Because I think the thing about this cast is people love them and they are incredibly talented. They've left sort of an indelible mark.  The thing that I wanted to do and the cast wanted to do, we didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for 8 years. We really wanted it to be true to that experience. We thought it would be really cool if we were true to the timeline."

And yes, that does mean losing established characters like Lea Michele's Rachel Berry leaving the show.  But not everyone would leave.

"We've got Matt Morrison and Jane Lynch who will stay and be the male and female lynchpins of the series, but I think the fun thing about the show is it's a celebration of youth and talent and I think that just like with the original cast, I think finding those young unknown people and giving them an opportunity to break into the business and become stars is a really fun and exciting thing and is the spirit of the series."

Murphy did say that he's not entirely ready to completely lose his beloved cast, and there are possibilities to keep them around.  Rumors are going around about the chance of a "Glee: The College Years" spin-off series, or having the graduating characters go to a local university so they can stay on the show.

via The Huffington Post