Why is Emily VanCamp leaving The Resident, Nic Nevin role after 4 years?

Earlier today, the shocking news first broke that Emily VanCamp is leaving The Resident and her role of Nic Nevin ahead of the show’s season 5 premiere. It’s a development that leaves a lot of people reeling, as we’re talking about one of the show’s most important characters and someone who recently got married to Conrad and became a parent for the first now.

So to see her gone from the story now? Devastating, especially when you consider the ways the writers may end up writing the character out. They don’t have a lot of options and because of that, don’t be surprised if she ends up being killed off — it could be the only way to not fundamentally change who this character was given the story that was set up.

For the sake of the rest of this article, we want to focus more on the why. Why would Emily opt to leave at this point, four seasons into what is a pretty big show all over the globe?

We know that there are some who will look at the actress’ personal life: She and husband Josh Bowman recently welcomed their first child, and it would be easy to say that maybe she wants some time away to be a parent. Yet, we’re sure that The Resident would have allowed her a maternity leave, so it doesn’t seem logical to assume that her exit has anything to do with that unless the travel aspects of the Atlanta-based show made it difficult on her as a new mother. (VanCamp has yet to address the reason behind the exit.)

It’s very easy to assume that ultimately, this departure could be creatively-based as the actress wants to go on to do other things. She has a prominent role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and it’s possible that moving forward, that could be expanded upon further. Doing work with Marvel, even on a Disney+ series, is often more flexible than a show like The Resident, which has a rigorous production schedule year after year.

Deadline did report on Monday that VanCamp asked to depart the series at the end of season 4; there were discussions about some sort of return in season 5 (she was open to it), but it did not work out.

Prior to doing the Fox medical drama and the MCU, Emily was best known for her work on Revenge and Everwood.

Why do you think Emily VanCamp is leaving The Resident?

Be sure to share right now in the comments! Once you do just that, stick around for some other news on the show. (Photo: Fox.)

This article was written by Jess Carter. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.