If I may ask, is there anything behind-the-scenes that could cause Sean to leave? I mean, while a lot of the MRJ drama was denied, it made a lot of noise (certainly a lot more than the “Sean assaulting a make-up artist” rumor) at the time.
We don’t know, but both Matt and I suspect there might be something. I highly (highly!!) doubt the rumors of sexual harrassament are true but I think it’s either 1) Sean’s dissatisfied with his role/amount of screen time (he would’t be the first one) 2) budget cuts at ABC (just look at what happened this past month with Castle) or 3) he had a fallout with someone.
The sexual harassment rumours are completely untrue for the fact the makeup artist herself that the rumours were about came out in Sean’s defence. Also Lana Parilla, who was cast in the “knight in shining armour” role in the rumour, came out and said nothing of the sort had happened.
As for the other 3 more likely possibilities.
1. Sean being dissatisfied with his role- Robin holds no real importance in the story, he’s just there to prop up Regina’s character instead of existing as his own character. It’s not the first time an actor on this show has spoken out about their lack of story (Michael Socha). If the actor has to spend time away from their family, they at least want it to be worthwhile, not just standing in the background.
2. Budget cuts- Cutting Robin would make sense to save money because of the fact he has no real impact on the story.
3. Fallout with Someone- This could feed into 1. Either it’s A&E over the lack of screentime or it’s one of the “big” cast members like JMO, Colin, RC, Ginny, Josh, or Emilie. However, considering Robin has nothing to do with RumBelle and doesn’t share scenes with them, I think RC and Emilie are unlikely. It could also be that Sean disagreed with the direction the story went in eg, Robin is expected to forgive Zelena after what she did to him.
There is a fourth option though.
4. Robin was killed off so the WickedSisters storyline could continue without reminding the viewers what Zelena did to Robin. The writers need Regina to be in a certain headspace and they can’t do that with Robin around to keep her happy.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of Felix