‘Glee’ season 5 spoilers: Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera start up with photos

Before you have a new season of a show like “Glee,” there is something else that you need to accomplish in the process: A promotional photo shoot! This is the opportunity for you to see in visual form the evolution that some of your favorite faces have made since the very beginning of their time on board the McKinley High money train.

It is thanks to this photo shoot in part that the news came out about Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr., Mark Salling, and Heather Morris losing their series-regular status for the new season, as they are clearly not pictured in the photo. This shot (posted by Lea Michele on Twitter) is a much smaller image than what we have seen of previous groups, and it shows that the producers are really listening to what critics and some fans have to say and what they are asking for: A less-is-more approach. The group will probably shrink even more after our current seniors graduate, at least in terms of who receives more airtime.

Here are a few other interesting details worth noting:

1. There is no Matthew Morrison in this photo, but don’t read too much into that: Mr. Schuester will still be around plenty. This seemed to focus primarily just on the younger characters. As for Darren Criss, he wasn’t there because of his concert tour stopping off in Boston.

2. There is also no Samuel Larsen and Vanessa Lengies, but since the former cut his dreads off and the latter has a new show, this is hardly much of a surprise at all.

3. Does anyone else like how Lea’s hairstyle is more Rachel Berry 1.0 than the New York version with the heavy bangs? Also, doesn’t Cory Monteith looked thrilled to be there?

If you want to read some more news on all of the departing cast members, our advice is to head on over to the link here.

Photo: Twitter / Lea Michele