Nearly one year after Ruth Wilson left The Affair, costar Joshua Jackson is following suit, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Sources tell the outlet that Jackson won’t appear in the upcoming fifth and final season of the award-winning Showtime drama.
His departure arrives after the shocking events of the last season, which saw Wilson’s character, Alison, get killed off. It was a surprising twist to fans, though showrunner Sarah Treem said the decision arose out of Wilson’s apparent desire to exit the series. “Ruth wanted to leave the show,” Treem told THR. “That was a request, so that was decided basically before we started writing.”
In a later interview, Wilson confirmed she did want to leave the show—though the reasoning behind her departure was a bit murkier.
“I did want to leave, but I’m not allowed to talk about why,” she said in an interview with CBS’s Gayle King. There were rumors that she left because of money disputes with the network, but Wilson denied those claims, adding, “I’ve never complained to Showtime about pay parity.”
In an interview with the New York Times, Wilson gave another cryptic answer about her decision to leave the show. “It isn’t about pay parity, and it wasn’t about other jobs. But I’m not really allowed to talk about it,” she said. She then added: “There is a much bigger story.”
A month later, there were reports that Jackson was also going to leave the show, declining to return for the fifth and final season. He has not publicly commented on those reports. Per THR, the show will jump ahead in time for the next season, with the characters tying up loose ends after the events of season four.
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