UPDATE May 21, 2009: According to Brad Caleb Kane, a former writer/producer on the show, Kirk Acevedo was apparently let go for streamlining reasons:
To all my Fringe-o-philes: I’m hearing Kirk Acevedo was let go b/c the powers-that-be were having trouble serving so many characters –
TV Guide also have the following from showrunner/exec. producer Jeff Pinkner, which suggests that things may not be what they seem:
But according to exec producer Jeff Pinkner, “like all things on Fringe, there is more to this story than meets the eye.” In fact Pinkner not only confirms to TV Guide Magazine that Acevedo “was not fired,” he hints that we’ll see more Agent Francis in season 2. Literally.
“We have already seen two of him on the show,” teases Pinkner. “We have already met the second Charlie. He had a scar on his face.” Looks like The Observer wasn’t messing around when he said that there’s more than one of everything.
—-
According to Kirk Acevedo, who plays Charlie Francis on Fringe, he has been fired from the show. Writing via his Facebook, he says “they done did yer boy wrong! they’ve fired me off of Fringe”.
It should be noted that this has yet to be confirmed by any other official sources, but it has obviously triggered a wave of speculation and concern across the fandom.
*It is speculated that this comes as a result of the financial cuts that Warner Bros. are making, as illustrated with the move to Vancouver for season 2.
Source: Fringe-Forum / ODI
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, if he wasn’t a bad boy, then I’m guessing it can only come down to budgetary concerns. Personally, I would rather see Astrid transferred to the LA office and Charlie kept on.
I know FOX, in it’s miraculous (if questionable) decision to renew “Dollhouse” extracted from Whedon the promise of a stripped down (read “cheaper”) show, so I suspect this is more unfortunate sharpening of the network pencil.
KA has already done work on Season 2, so this had to be a pretty sudden decision. Hopefully they won’t kill him off. I hate gratuitous violence.
He looks like a very bad boy. Needs to be spanked. And since it has to be done….I’ll do it.
Well, I never thought Charlie Francis was such a great character, so I kind of don’t really care. I mean, Olivia went everywhere all on her own ANYWAY…
Meh…if it’s true or not, who knows at this point? Probably is, though.
Charlie is a nice guy, but he really didn’t do much in Season 1. He always felt very unnecessary. They had a hard enough time trying to give Astrid stuff to do. To me, it always felt like Olivia was 95% of every episode anyway.
Acevedo was awesome in “Band of Brothers” though. He’ll easily find more work. And thank Heavens we won’t have to see his wife onscreen again!
His wife??? What the hell are you talking about? It’s like I’m reading your post and going “uh huh.. yeah uh..huh….WHAT!” That woman who walked by in on episode for mabe a minute of screen time???
His wife is the woman who also played Charlie’s wife in “Unleashed.” I just felt that her performance was wooden and that her screen time was wasted.
Both JROrci and Brad Caleb Kane seem to have been offloaded as well
Orci left of his own accord as per his May 15th entry at
http://twitter.com/jrorci
“Big decision of the week: I’ve decided not to return to Fringe for S2. Planning to work on some personal projects this year. Will miss them!”
Sometimes one’s “own accord” is not as voluntary as one might like. It sounds to me that many shows are engaging in across the board cost cutting measures.
If Orci was coerced into voluntarily bowing out, he managed to skillfully cloak his duress in that brief Twitter statement, in stark contrast to KA’s upper case battle cry.
Amen. Acevedo’s declaration is beyond ridiculous.
Plus I’m sad because he was my favorite writer. He wrote the Equation and the much-maligned (but personally adored) Ghost Network.
Not to be hatin’ on anybody’s favorite channel, but I soooo hope that Fringe doesn’t turn into essentially a Sci-Fi Channel series that just happens to be on FOX. With the move to Vancouver, and cutting costs, and writers, and cutting a good actor like Kirk ….
I’d rather have kept Acevado around and developed Charlie’s character then wasted the money to have Nimoy come and use the set bathroom a couple of times.
ITA, Fringeling. Penny wise, pound foolish. I had a friend tell me he thought the Nimoy thing was done to serve the Star Trek movie; human product-placement.
Yeah that bumped my ear to read too. I mean to each his own but the actress who played his wife is darling. But even if she’s not your cuppa, she was hardly around long enough to be noticed much less offensive.
That’s Mrs. Acevedo who played Mrs. Francis
Or Kiersten Warren as she’s known in the business world. Quite extensive and very impressive resume Ms. Warren has. She’s been called a lot of things. Can’t think that “wooden” has ever been one of them. (shrugs) To each their strategic own.