James Mackay leaving Dynasty, Steven Carrington role; why?

Tonight, Dynasty provided a shocker both in terms of what was going on with the show, and also away from it. James Mackay, who plays the character of Steven Carrington, has departed the CW series after a little more than one season on the job. What happened here?

Leading up to the episode tonight, it was Mackay himself who first confirmed the news of his exit in a post on Instagram:

“All new #Dynasty tonight, but, yep, sorry to say without yours truly … While Steven had a choice to leave, unfortunately I didn’t. There’s a lot of decisions involved in making television, and sometimes they just don’t go your way and you have to live with it. So for now, all love and on we go. Hope you all enjoy the show.”

So basically, this is not a situation close to what happened to Nathalie Kelley, who left the series and the role of Cristal after the first season — and seemed to be rather content with it after the fact. The show went on and hired a new version of the Cristal character in season 2, which does more or less go in line with the sort of thing that you expect from this series.

As for how the series chose to write out the character, apparently Steven is now off doing charity work for others in Paraguay — eventually, though, doesn’t he have to come back? You would probably assume so, but there may be some other way to write that character out over time that we didn’t get on the show tonight.

One of the things that is perhaps the most bizarre about Dynasty is that for a series that is struggling in the ratings, it’s rather unusual that this show is shedding as many different characters as they are — especially important regulars. Maybe this is a way of streamlining the cast and finding out what works best for them creatively … but it doesn’t seem right to speculate too much on it, either. If you watch Dynasty, you’ve been along with them for long enough to have faith in the writers and what they’re putting down. We’re sure that there are MANY crazy twists ahead with this show (there always is), regardless of whether or not Steven is around for them.

New episodes of Dynasty are going to continue airing on The CW Friday nights.

Related – Be sure to get some other news regarding Dynasty

What do you think about James Mackay leaving Dynasty, and then the suddenness of the announcement to go along with it? Be sure to share in the attached comments. (Photo: The CW.)