Why is Jason Ralph leaving The Magicians after four seasons?
It’s been over twelve hours now, but we think that for some, the news still hasn’t settled in: Jason Ralph is leaving The Magicians. There’s that part of the news that is rather hard to digest, and then there’s another element of it and another key question that is difficult: Why? What made it so that now is the time to write this character out?
In an interview last night, the show’s executive producers touched on that slightly, noting that it was a collaborative decision between them and Ralph to write Quentin out of the series after being such a huge, central part of this story through the first four seasons. Now, Jason has offered up some of his own thoughts, explaining via Entertainment Weekly that this is just a decision that felt right for everyone involved at the start of this season:
It’s funny, it all felt kind of natural when we started talking about it before the season started. [The show] starts with this person who is really questioning his worth in the world and if life is even worth living. And the journey of him in the show, and in the books, is him coming to the realization that it is, just maybe not in the way that he always expected. It’s kind of a story about a person who always wanted to be the main character of the story [realizing] that he’s not and finding a way to be okay with that and finding his own place inside of the world, and [learning] there really are no heroes, not in the real world anyway and confronting the disappointing reality of that. That’s naturally where we ended up finding Quentin at the top of the season and engraining those lessons through it.
It’s a beautiful parallel to what we see happen in the books. In both the book and in this final episode, you have Quentin deciding to walk through a doorway of his own creation, to close a chapter, and to move on to a new adventure and leave the old world behind him. I think it’s really gorgeous that we managed to pay tribute to the book in that way.
At this point, it feels like we’re not going to get any more details than this … but we don’t think anything is going to change the fact that this is one of the most-shocking exits of the year so far in television. What makes this even more shocking is that due to a gag order that Jason was under regarding his exit, the rest of the cast only learned THIS WEEK that he was exiting the show! That’s the craziest part of this whole story to us, mostly because we’re typically looking at a situation here in which actors at least have a chance to commiserate with some other cast members in regards to some of what’s going on with them.
Ultimately, losing Quentin is a tough blow to swallow — the show will go on for a season 5, but it’s not going to be the same without him serving as a part of it.
Are you sad about the idea of Jason Ralph leaving The Magicians? Be sure to share some of your thoughts/reactions to the news in the comments.