The body count during the freshman season of The CW’s Beauty and the Beast was a bit high. However, there were just three that Executive Producers Sherri Cooper and Jennifer Levin gave us more insight on.
We spoke to the two during the San Diego Comic-Con where they revealed who is coming back, who is not, and which fan favorite may not be gone for good.
One casualty of the forthcoming season is the character of Joe Bishop played by Brian White. While his character didn’t die last season, he, unfortunately, will not be returning. The reason for his exit is due to the fact that the show has slowly done away with the case of the week and is now less of a police procedural. “We think [Brian White is] an incredible actor and we didn’t want to do it,” says Sherri, “but moving our show out from procedure meant building lots of stages, adding other elements to tell the story that’s not just a crime procedural.”
One character making a surprising return from death is Gabe Lowe (Sendhil Ramamurthy). During the season finale, his character had been shot not once but a good two dozen times in the chest, so his return is quite a shocker. “[Co-Showrunner and Executive Producer] Brad Kern came up with this amazing storyline for [Gabe] and how he came back and how he survived that shooting and what that’s done to his character,” Jennifer shares. “It makes his character much more complicated and multilayered. It’s cool.” “It’s a great arc for him,” adds Sherri, “and once you see this season, you’re going to be like, “Oh, of course!”
In addition to losing Joe, there was another character who was a fan-favorite whom we lost too soon during the middle of the first season. “We didn’t want to lose Evan either,” Jennifer says, “but it felt like [it was necessary for] where the story was taking us.”
But fret not, Evan fans. When asked if this was the last we’ve seen of Evan (Max Brown), Jennifer replies, “We hope not. We love him!”
Beauty and the Beast returns this October on The CW.