Fire Country is experiencing a massive casting shakeup for the first time.
Season 3 of the hit CBS series just came to an end on Friday (April 25), and two stars from the series are leaving ahead of Season 4.
Until now, the show kept its original seven-member main cast intact, but two of them are now leaving, per Deadline.
Stephanie Arcila (Gabriella Perez)
Stephanie plays firefighter, paramedic and Bode Leone’s (Max Thieriot) on-again, off-again love interest.
Fire Country co-creators/executive producers Joan Rater and Tony Phelan and executive producer/showrunner Tia Napolitano confirmed Stephanie’s exit as a series regular in an interview with Deadline.
The showrunners also said that budget and cost-cutting was not what led to the decision.
“It really just comes down to what’s the best creatively,” Joan said.
“That’s a reality, there’s danger in this sort of job, so we wanted to honor that and really up the stakes,” said Tia, adding that the show is “leaning into the authenticity of the real-life heroes that our characters are playing, people die, they leave.”
But she’s not totally gone: the executive producers plan to have her return in the future as a guest star.
“We love Stephanie, and we are committed to saying that the Bode-Gabriela story does not end here, it goes on,” Tony said. “We’re hoping that that we can bring that character back, because we think that they have such great chemistry, and the audience is really invested in the two of them.”
Tia added: “We hope to see her back very soon, to give her a proper not goodbye, but see you later. In the epic love story of Bode and Gabriela, sometimes it’s very useful for a longing, to miss her, to miss them, to really crave seeing them on screen together, whatever they mean to each other.”
As for whether she’d come back, Stephanie told the outlet: “I never say never.”
“I think that she could continue as a firefighter, I think that she could continue as an EMT, but I definitely think she will never stop learning and growing,” she said of the character.
Billy Burke (Vince Leone)
Billy Burke plays Jake’s (Jordan Calloway) boss and Bode’s father.
Billy recently signed on for guest role on the Peacock crime thriller M.I.A.
Per Deadline, he was believed to be among “several” Fire Country series regulars who were asked to reduce their episodes for next season due to cost-cutting measures. The actors reportedly declined and as a result, no one’s episodes were reduced for Season 4.
When asked about that, the showrunners told the outlet: “No, it’s really coming out of us wanting to be exciting storytellers.”
The Season 3 finale featured a life-and-death cliffhanger involving Vince, his wife Sharon (Diane Farr), and his father, retired battalion chief Walter Leone (Jeff Fahey) trapped in burning memory care building with the roof collapsing on them.
