Animal Kingdom season 3: Why did Scott Speedman leave?

For those of you wondering why it was that Scott Speedman left Animal Kingdom following the events of the season 3 premiere, there is now a clear answer — and it’s not because of any controversy or him seemingly wanted out.

Instead, the exit of the Baz character from the TNT drama is very much tied to the source material in the Australian film — in that, Baz dies fairly early on. There was a moment in which this was bound to happen and as it turned out, this was it. This is something that executive producer John Wells describes further to Entertainment Weekly:

It was actually a year later than we thought we were going to do it. The series is based on the Australian film by David Michod and the Baz character dies in the first 15 minutes of the movie. So that’s where we thought we were going and then we realized we had more material for Baz, more stories we wanted to tell, so we put it off a little bit. But for the activities that the Codys are involved in, we want the show to feel as if there are consequences for what they do, so it was a pretty straightforward easy decision to make. I’d always talked to Scott [Speedman] about the fact that I didn’t think it would be a five- or six-year deal so he was prepared for it when it happened.

This move actually comes about at a great time for Speedman, given the fact that he now has some opportunities to look towards his future away from Animal Kingdom — and possibly over on Grey’s Anatomy. While there is not 100% confirmation right now by any means that he will be bringing his character of Nick over to that show full-time after the appearance earlier this spring, we know that there is definitely a demand to see that happen. Ultimately, we could find out about future appearances later this summer.

What do you think: Was this the right time for Animal Kingdom to remove Baz from the equation? Share right now in the attached comments!