Virgin River‘s Marco Grazzini is breaking his silence after Mike was written off the show before season 8.
“Character departures are very common in this business — especially on a long-running and beloved series like Virgin River,” Grazzini, 45, who has been on the show since season 2, told Entertainment Weekly on Thursday, March 12. “It’s been a wonderful opportunity to play Mike for six seasons.”
Grazzini said he has “nothing but love for the cast, crew, and especially the phenomenal fans who make the show so special,” adding, “I’m excited for this new chapter in my career.”
News originally broke on Thursday that Grazzini won’t be returning as a series regular — for now.
“For me, I’m just trying to look to the longevity of the show and making sure that the characters that we’re keeping have enough story engine in them to keep going,” showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told Deadline. “So I can’t say there are any specific cast shakeups planned, but I think we will have to start to — as characters run their course — make some decisions and bring in some new blood.”
In addition to Grazzini, Lauren Hammersley, who has been playing Charmaine since the show premiered on Netflix, is also not expected to come back. With the exception of Grazzini, the rest of Virgin River‘s season 7 series regulars are expected to return in season 8.
Based on the book series written by Robyn Carr, Virgin River centers around the lives of residents living in a small town in Northern California, including Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and her love interest, Jack (Martin Henderson). The series also stars Colin Lawrence, Annette O’Toole, Tim Matheson, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Sarah Dugdale, Zibby Allen and Kai Bradbury.
This isn’t the first time the show has gone through some changes behind the scenes. Grayson Gurnsey left as Ricky after season 4, and Mark Ghanimé, who played Cameron, had a surprising exit once season 6 was released.
Grazzini recently teased Mike’s future after his split from Brie (Allen) led to him potentially finding love with Victoria (Sara Canning), exclusively telling Us Weekly, “I think that Mike falls into the same patterns that he’s always been in. She’s somebody that he’s worked with in the past and she’s been in law enforcement.”
Grazzini teased that Mike “definitely has a type.”
“Mike definitely falls hard and he falls fast. He’s a romantic at heart and he just wants to find love,” he noted. “But maybe he needs to exercise a little bit more [caution]. Just wait and see. But obviously he’s taken by Victoria.”
The actor expressed hope that Mike could “broaden his horizons and maybe find other interests in common.”
“It would be somebody that could distract him from his work life and bring him more into other parts of himself. His hobbies and his passions. Because you know that that line of work can weigh on you,” he continued. “So when the other person in the relationship is also in that line of work, it can get pretty heavy. As familiar as it is, it would be nice for Mike to step out of his comfort zone.”
Virgin River is currently streaming on Netflix.
