After 9-1-1 received backlash for killing off Peter Krause‘s character, Fire Country is losing two main cast members following a deadly season finale.
The third season wrapped up on Friday, April 25, with Vince (Billy Burke), Sharon (Diane Farr) and Walter Leone (Jeff Fahey) getting trapped in a building amid a fire. Bode (Max Thieriot) attempted to save them but it remained unclear who survived after an explosion caused the roof to collapse.
Elsewhere, Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) faced off against her stalker while Jake (Jordan Calloway) planned to leave Cal Fire for a new job. There were multiple story lines that left Us on the edge of our seat but it was the news after the finale that came as a surprise.
Deadline and TVLine reported after the season 3 finale that Arcila, 35, would be exiting the show after three seasons. She is expected to potentially return as a guest star in the future while Burke, 58, is stepping down — with Vince seemingly being the casualty in the explosion.
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While executive producers Joan Rater, Tony Phelan and Tia Napolitano confirmed Arcila’s departure in a postmortem interview with Deadline, they remained more tight-lipped about Burke’s future with the show.
“It really just comes down to what’s the best creatively. There’s a lot of stuff going on that we as producers juggle, but honestly, we are writers first and foremost and storytellers,” Rater told the outlet in response to a question about budget cuts affecting the season 4 cast. “And we struggle with these stories, we wrestle them to the ground, we consider them from six different angles. We don’t do anything lightly, we talk, we talk, we talk. And then we just have to go with our gut about what makes the most compelling story, and we are really trying to write authentic stories that examine what these heroes deal with and go through. So that’s where we’re coming from at all times.”
Phelan, meanwhile, argued that a cast change would allow for more intrigue.
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“Also, going into Season 4, you don’t want the audience to ever feel complacent, to feel like they know exactly what they’re gonna get, and it’s gonna be the same thing that they’ve gotten,” he added. “You want to create lean-In moments where the real stakes of what’s involved with what these heroes do is always there. So the audience never knows what’s coming next.”
According to Napolitano, it “wasn’t decided earlier in the season” that Gabriela’s arc was over, adding, “It was during discussions about finding the end of the season. We spoke to Stephanie while we were shooting the finale.”
Napolitano wouldn’t weigh in on where Vince’s story goes from here. “We are not going to confirm who we’re losing,” she noted. “There will definitely be a devastating loss for everyone that remains in our family. No, shooting the finale, none of the actors knew.”
Fire Country is currently streaming on Paramount+.
