Fuller House season 5 will reportedly not feature Lori Loughlin
According to a report from Deadline, the prospects of the Aunt Becky actress returning to that iconic role are slim at best as the show moves into it’s final chapter — and for pretty obvious reasons. Following her arrest earlier this week amidst a college admissions scandal, Loughlin’s been dropped from all of her Hallmark-related programming and her daughter, a social-media influencer, has lost a deal with Sephora. The fallout from all of this is likely to continue, as most news on the scandal is still fairly new. TV negotiations are often complex and it may take time to sort it all out.
If you missed it… Check out our video discussion on some of Loughlin’s other TV work in When Calls the Heart, and that show’s future below. For extra insight, be sure to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube. We have fun TV discussion sup daily!
As noted earlier in the week, we long expected Fuller House studio Warner Horizon to move away from having her return to the show — and it’s not even all that challenging a decision. They don’t have to formally fire Loughlin, mostly because she was never a series regular on the revival in the first place. She’s recurred throughout as Aunt Becky, mostly as a means to offer up a few laughs and give a hearty dose of nostalgia to everyone out there who adored Full House. Her return appearances were similar in that way to Bob Saget or John Stamos’ over the past few seasons — the character will be missed, but the show can still go on without her.
The best way to write her out
It’s really not that complicated — as a matter of fact, we feel like it can be handled within just a single line of dialogue! Just have DJ or someone else say that Becky’s moved somewhere for a new opportunity or is just “busy” on the few occasions you’d expect her around. This isn’t TV writing rocket science. Loughlin’s other show When Calls the Heart is faced with a far more significant challenge, given that she’s a series regular there who plays a key part in the story. She’s more of an add-on to the success of Fuller House rather than one of the wheels that keeps it going.
We also imagine that the Fuller House situation is infinitely easier than When Calls the Heart given that season 5 hasn’t even started filming yet. If she was written into any scripts, a little bit of doctoring can take her right out. We don’t need to harp on the subject of “doing right by a character” when we’ve discussed it in the past, but our hope is that Fuller House producers don’t get to cheeky with this — this is a family show. We don’t need Becky to be arrested or for there to be some wink-and-a-nudge reference to what’s happening on the outside. Remember when Two and a Half Men went full meta for their series finale? They thought it was so clever and newsworthy, when it fact it butchered much of the show and was one of the most terrible finales we’ve ever seen.
Do you think that Fuller House is doing the right thing steering clear of all things Loughlin moving forward? Share now in the comments. (Photo: Netflix.)