SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Season 7 of Netflix’s Virgin River.
Mike Valenzuela has solved his last case in Virgin River, for now. Marco Grazzini, who has been on the Netflix romantic drama for five seasons, the last four as a series regular, is leaving after the current seventh season.
“He’s not coming back for Season 8,” Virgin River showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells Deadline.
Also not returning next season is Lauren Hammersley, who has been playing Charmaine for the entire seven-season run of the show to date, as a series regular for the first four seasons and recurring thereafter. Both could return in subsequent seasons, Smith said.
The two departures after Season 7 match the total of series regular exits over the show’s first six seasons, with Grayson Gurnsey (Ricky) leaving after Season 4 and Mark Ghanimé (Dr. Cameron) after Season 6. (Jenny Cooper, who plays Mel’s sister Joey, has continued to recur after a series regular stint in Season 1.)
The cast of Virgin River has been pretty stable, with few departures and only one new series regular cast addition since Smith joined as showrunner after Season 4, Kandyse McClure as Kaia in Season 5. (There also have been only three promotions to series regular over 7 seasons, with none planned for Season 8, even for Teryl Rothery, who has been a staple on the show as Muriel since Season 1 and will continue in her current capacity.)
While cast shakeups are one way long-running series can reinvent themselves, that is not something Smith is planning while still looking to keep the series fresh.
“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,” he said. “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.”
Beside Grazzini, the rest of Virgin River‘s Season 7 series regulars are expected to return in Season 8, even Ben Hollingsworth, whose character Brady is involved in a scary crash in the final seconds of the finale.
A police detective and a Marine friend of Jack’s (Martin Henderson), Mike was introduced as a recurring character in Season 2. Grazzini was promoted to a series regular at the start of Season 3.
After pining for Jack’s sister Brie (Zibby Allen) ever since she came to Virgin River in Season 3, Mike started dating her at the end of Season 5 after she broke up with her on- again off- again flame Brody (Hollingsworth).
(L to R) Marco Grazzini and Zibby Allen in ‘Virgin River’ Season 7
Courtesy of Netflix
Mike’s proposal to Brie, one of Season 6 finale’s cliffhangers, was rejected by her early into Season 7. His hopes to rekindle their relationship when the two teamed up to search for Charmaine were dashed, and Brie ultimately reunited with Brody. Mike was last seen in the Season 7 finale with a rebound of his own, Victoria (Sara Canning), the visiting medical investigator who confessed to Mike about having had a crush on him years ago during her cop days.
“Mike probably will be on the back burner for a little while until we have something we’ve written,” Smith said. “We have so many relationships already that I think a little bit of that was just a sort of happy ending for this chapter for Mike to find his way back to Victoria and to explore what happens there. But I love Marco and could see his character coming back in a more substantive role if the creative is right.”
Along with Grazzini, gone is Canning, who joined Virgin River as a recurring in Season 7. Another new Season 7 recurring cast addition, Cody Kearsley (Clay), will again recur next season as Jack’s mysterious new ranch hand continues to search for his missing sister. The return of the third major new recurring player this season, Matty Finochio as Hope’s (Annette O’Toole) temp assistant Tony while Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) is on a maternity leave, is TBD.
“Actually, I found out a few weeks ago that he has booked a series regular on another show, so he’s unavailable for the first part of our shoot, but I would love to have him back,” Smith said. “He was such a breath of fresh air and so funny and just a nice energy, especially up against Hope, that would want to squander that and not revisit again.”
From the Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack’s adoption storyline, “out for now” is Rachel Drance, who recurred as expectant mom Marley for the past two seasons, with both birth parents not in the picture in Season 8, Smith said.
Expected to recur next season is Austin Nichols who did a cameo at the end of the Season 7 finale as Eli, the pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon operating on Mel and Jack’s adopted newborn son who had worked with Mel during her time in Nurses Without Borders.
“He also booked something else, so we’re working around his schedule. We have such talented cast members that everybody wants them,” Smith said.
Charmaine had become a favorite Virgin River cliffhanger plot device, with the character being part of many big season finale twists, the latest in the Season 6 finale involving her abduction. (Previous included the news of her pregnancy and the reveal of her paternity lie.) Charmaine was MIA for the entire seventh season until she was found and rescued by Brie.
If we are speaking of characters that have “run their course,” as Smith put it earlier, for Charmaine that may have come halfway through her pregnancy, which lasted five seasons, possibly a TV series record.
“No plans for Charmaine to be back in Season 8 but that’s not to say, when the right time comes, I’d love to bring the character back for something other than more cliffhangers and more lies on pregnancies,” Smith said.