‘New Girl’ season 4 spoilers: Damon Wayans Jr. departing as Coach (again)

Well, this probably is going to sound very familiar: Damon Wayans Jr. is looking to exit “New Girl” at the end of its fourth season.

The actor was originally a part of the pilot for the show, but his character exited after “Happy Endings” was surprisingly (at the time) renewed for another season. He eventually came back as a recurring guest star throughout season 3, and was made into a regular for this season. Lamorne Morris eventually was brought on in his place as Winston Bishop, who has become a big part of the series in his wake.

In a statement to TVLine, Wayans had the following to say about his decision to depart:

“I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to come back to New Girl in Season 3 to reprise the role of Coach … Working with this incredibly talented and funny cast and crew has been one of the best experiences of my career.”

Showrunner Liz Meriwether also told the website that the show is planning to create a fitting exit for the character that will leave the door open for him to return at some point in the future.

We’re obviously torn over this news, given that we do love Wayans as a performer, and Coach has started to mesh a little bit better than he did during the third season of the show. (Take, for example, him working at the same school as Jess.) With that being said, we also feel like the timing here is probably right. It is very hard to do a comedy with six characters, especially when you have one of them in Jess who is meant to be the lead. Having Coach leave will allow for some larger storylines for the other characters.

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