Why did Theo James leave Sanditon, role of Sidney Parker?

Tonight on PBS you will see the Sanditon season 2 premiere, but why did Theo James leave the show ahead of time? As many of you may know already, Theo James opted to not return to the fan-favorite drama, even in spite of it having such an incredible road to revival. There was certainly more story between Charlotte and Sidney that could have been told but, regrettably, we won’t have a chance to see it.

Following the show’s two-season renewal last year, James himself confirmed in a statement that he would not be returning. Why? In his words, he appreciated the “broken fairy-tale like ending” between his character and Charlotte. James has also since moved on to some other projects, with the biggest one being the upcoming The Time-Traveler’s Wife.

In general, Theo’s exit is representative of what often happens when a show goes away for several years and is later revived; it’s almost impossible to get the entirety of the original show’s cast back. We know that this exit comes as a disappointment to a lot of people, but there is a clear hope that there are a lot of other great stories out there! Fingers crossed that within some of those, we’ll see romance, drama, and just about everything else you could possibly want.

We hope that everyone does go into the new version of the series with an open mind and with that, falls in love with it all over again. It’s nice to know that there is that season 3 renewal in advance here, as it will allow the producers to plan ahead and not have to be so fearful about the short-term future.

Are you going to miss Theo James being a part of Sanditon moving forward?

Do you understand why he’s gone? Be sure to share right now in the attached comments! Once you do just that, be sure to stick around — there are other updates on the way and of course, we don’t want you to miss any of them.

Photo: PBS