The fifth season of Glee almost featured a very different cast lineup.
In 2009, TV enthusiasts were introduced to the popular teen musical dramedy, created by Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy.
Taking place at the fictitious William McKinley High School, the series focused on the school’s glee club, New Directions, as they navigated issues such as sexuality, race, gender identity, mental health, pregnancy and school violence.
The show also propelled the careers of Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Corey Monteith, Naya Rivera, Amber Riley, Heather Morris, Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Diana Agron and Matthew Morrison.
While Glee made a massive impact on pop culture – with many fans still calling for a reboot – the show’s last few seasons almost didn’t feature one of its central characters.
In a recent interview on McHale and Ushkowitz’s podcast And That’s What You REALLY Missed, Morrison opened up about his time playing Mr Shue– revealing that he tried to leave the show during season five.
“I asked to be off the show, cause I was just like, ‘I’m no longer being used in the way I wanted to,” he explained to his former co-stars.
“No disrespect to the show. We were at a high. I was like, ‘Maybe if I get off the show, I could do something else, go do a movie,’ and they agreed to let me off the show.”
While Morrison was all set to close his Glee chapter, the tragic death of Corey Monteith resulted in his plans coming to a halt – with the show’s creatives telling him they couldn’t write off two of the show’s main actors.
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“I was like, ‘Yeah, I get it.’ You know, trying to reconcile my own wants and selfish needs with the grief of losing an amazing friend, you know, there’s a lot of mixed emotions,” he added.
Toward the end of his statement, Morrison said that despite his departure no longer happening, he showed up to work and remained professional.
He added: “And there was a good pay increase, so that worked too.”
Morrison’s recent interview comes a year after Murphy spilt some major behind-the-scenes tea about the early stages of Glee – including the former’s character originally being written as a crystal meth addict.
“We were having these conversations, and I was trying to figure it out,” he explained to McHale and Ushkowitz on the aforementioned podcast.
“Like serendipity, I went to the gym and I was in a towel and a guy went up and handed me a script and he said, ‘I had a feeling you were in show choir, am I right?’ And I was like ‘Yeah.’ And he said, ‘My friend wrote this script and you should read it.’
“Mr. Schue, I believe, was a crystal meth addict in Ian’s [Brennan] script. The NC-17 version of show choir with a weird protagonist who was unravelling…I just need something optimistic.”
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