Jeffrey Tambor fired (officially) from Transparent season 5

It may have taken a while for the news to become official, but now it finally is — Jeffrey Tambor has been dismissed from Amazon’s Transparent, and will not be a part of the upcoming fifth season of the show. This announcement comes following an investigation that went into accusations of sexual misconduct filed against the actor many months ago. While he has said previously that he did not imagine a way in which he could ever return to the series, it’s not 100% confirmed in a way that it was not previously.

In a statement, series creator Jill Soloway had the following to say:

“I have great respect and admiration for Van Barnes and Trace Lysette, whose courage in speaking out about their experience on Transparent is an example of the leadership this moment in our culture requires … We are grateful to the many trans people who have supported our vision for Transparent since its inception and remain heartbroken about the pain and mistrust their experience has generated in our community. We are taking definitive action to ensure our workplace respects the safety and dignity of every individual, and are taking steps to heal as a family.”

This move in most ways a foregone conclusion, given that the accusations leveled against Tambor were infuriating, especially for a show that is meant to spread a message of inclusivity. It’s hard to imagine that anyone ever imaged after the time of the accusations that Tambor would ever return to the series, largely because anything otherwise would be disrespectful to the accusers and quite frankly wrong. While Tambor may have been the lead, we do think that diehard viewers of Transparent watch for so much more than just to see his performance. There are going to be other opportunities for the cast to shine and we’ve got all the confidence in the world in Soloway to continue the story the right way. The message and intention of the series supersedes any one individual character.