‘Suits’: Patrick J. Adams & Meghan Markle Poised To Depart After 7 Seasons As Series Eyes Season 8 Renewal By USA
As USA Network’s popular legal drama series Suits is prepping the second half of its seventh season, I hear that co-lead Patrick J. Adams is not expected to continue as a series regular in Season 8, which has not been ordered but is considered is likely. Co-star and fellow original cast member Meghan Markle also is eyeing an exit. The contracts of all Suits original cast members are up after Season 7, so both Adams and Markle will have fulfilled their current obligations. USA and Suits producer Universal Cable Prods. declined comment.
Rumors about Adams looking to move on after seven years on the Toronto-based series started to circulate a couple of months ago. Adams was a fresh-faced young actor who got his big break when he was cast as the co-lead opposite Gabriel Macht in Suits, landing a SAG nomination for the first season. A lot has changed since for him professionally and personally, with Adams recently getting married, so I hear he started contemplating a next chapter in his career this past summer.
Like with Adams, Suits also helped establish Markle as a TV star. Her Rachel Zane character on Suits had been closely linked with Adams’ Mike Ross since Day 1, so an exit of Markle alongside Adams would make sense. Rachel and Mike currently are engaged, with Suits creator Aaron Korsh teasing to Deadline that their long-postponed wedding may finally happen in the upcoming final Season 7 episodes. For the past year or so, Markle has been in a relationship with the British Prince Harry while continuing to work on Suits.
Adams and Markle would join fellow Suits original cast member Gina Torres, who left as a series regular last year but since has returned for guest spots on the mothership series and is toplining a proposed spinoff series.
Here is what Korsh told Deadline in September about the contracts of the remaining cast members coming to an end and whether he thinks they would come back:
“They all have things going on in their lives, we’ll see what happens,” he said “This is true on all long-running shows, and people have things happening in their lives. When Gina left, I could not have predicted that the way her life was going. She loved being on the show, and we loved having her on the show, that’s why we’re doing the spinoff. I would never have guessed that she would want to leave early but she did, and it ended up working out. Even though she left early, look at how often we still see Jessica throughout season six and seven. I’m going to let what happens happens and hope it all works out.”
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