Glee Season 3 – The Status of Darren Criss, Harry Shum Jr and Chord Overstreet

Glee has made some additions to its ever-increasing list of series regulars.  The cast members getting bumped up to full-time regulars for the third season are Harry Shum Jr. (Mike) and Darren Chris (Blaine) according to  Spiky TV. This is bigger news for Shum who has been on the show since the first season, while Blaine just joined the cast during Season 2.

But with this positive comes a negative.  Chord Overstreet, who joined Glee in Season 2 as well playing transfer student Sam Evans, did not have his option to be promoted to regular exercised. Overstreet made a tweet that seems to refer to this news. “It’s been a good year. Too bad it’s over. Time for summer and starting fresh,” says the tweet. This doesn’t mean his character won’t return as an occasional guest star.

Two weeks ago creator Ryan Murphy dropped the bombshell that the older cast would all graduate at the end of Season 3. Murphy clarified to Spiky TV why this decision was made. “Do we really want to have an eight-year [high school] senior? The only way somebody could stay on the show is if they flunk, and that is always a possibility. I think Brittany is pulling straight Fs.” So there are ways to keep some of the cast around longer than others. It’s just a question of if it works with story. Brittany most likely would fail, and I could see a couple of students sticking around to help coach the glee club.