Dianna Agron, Heather Morris & More Leaving ‘Glee’

Glee stars Diana Agron, Heather Morris, Mark Salling, Amber Riley and Harry Shum Jr. will no longer be series regulars on the hit FOX musical comedy show.

Though the actors will no longer be regulars, that doesn’t mean they’re done with the show for good. They’ll all likely make guest appearances as their beloved characters in Glee’s fifth season, reported TV Line.

During Glee’s fourth season, Agron, Salling, Riley and Shum Jr. were rarely used. Quinn (Agron) was off at Yale, Puck (Salling) was in California, Mercedes (Riley) pursuing a recording contract and Mike (Shum Jr.) off at a dance school. Brittney, who was held back in the third season, remained at McKinley last season, but will now be off to MIT.

Explaining the reasons behind releasing the show's older actors, series creator Ryan Murphy has said in the past, “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.”

While Murphy has brought in new actors to play high school students in McKinley’s glee club, New Directions, he’s also kept some of the show’s veterans on board. Rachel (Lea Michelle), Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Santana (Naya Rivera) have transplanted to New York, but remain on Glee nonetheless. Perhaps a Glee spinoff could be in the works, continuing the storylines of that trio of characters while Glee remains primarily a high school-centered nightime soap.

Glee will kick of its fifth season on Thursday, Sept. 19.

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