ABC’s Beloved 20-Year Book Adaptation Series Moves On After Cast Purge

Published Sep 28, 2026, 2:01 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Even though one believed ABC procedural will never be the same after a pair of major character exits, the series is clearly continuing onward and upward, according to its official TikTok account. To misquote The Dark Knight’s conflicted Harvey Dent, every network TV procedural either dies before its time or lives long enough to end up recasting major characters. There was a time when Law & Order: SVU’s Stabler was the show’s true protagonist, but the series continued without him for over a decade. Similarly, other legendary long-running procedural shows have survived everything from NCIS’s Mark Harmon exit to Thomas Gibson and Mandy Patinkin both leaving Criminal Minds at different points. Perhaps most infamously, long before 9-1-1 season 10’s premiere, its original hero, Bobby Nash, was killed off after spending eight seasons as the show’s de facto protagonist. Within this context, one ABC series killing off two major series regulars in season 4’s finale might seem like small fry. However, that is not how viewers felt when Sonja Sohn’s Amanda Wagner and Scott Foley’s Seth McDale both left Will Trent in season 4. In season 4, Episode 15, ”The Blank Expanse of Nothing,” Will’s life-long confidante Amanda was stabbed to death by Adelaide, with Will discovering her bleeding out on the street. In the season 4 finale, Seth died in a car crash after saving Angie from the wreck and ensuring their baby was safely delivered, succumbing to massive internal injuries after his adrenaline rush wore off. Will Trent Officially Kicks Off Season 5 Production Disney Will Trent season 5 will be a very different show now that Will has lost his surrogate parent and protector Amanda, with a new boss taking over as the Deputy Director of the GBI. Meanwhile, the death of Angie’s love interest Seth means that Will is essentially becoming a co-parent right after losing his substitute parent, helping Angie raise her child in Seth’s absence. This is hardly the first time that Will Trent has pulled off a shocking twist death that radically impacted its main character. Will Trent season 3 saw the title character accidentally shoot a child, a heartbreaking shock that reshaped the story of the season as Will came to terms with what he had done and reconsidered his role in law enforcement. As such, it should not come as a shock that Will Trent season 5’s production is underway as the show must now go on, even in the absence of Amanda and Seth. In a TikTok video, star Erika Christensen announced that season 5’s production had begun, meaning the ABC procedural is set to start an entire new era. Alexandra Metz is set to join the cast as Birdie Palmer, the GBI’s new Deputy Director. How Will Trent Season 5 Kicks Off A New Era For The ABC Procedural ABC (via MovieStillsDb) Considering the close-knit link between Will and Amanda, this alone will mark a major shift in one of the show’s main relationships. However, the death of Angie’s love interest and her resulting co-parenting dynamic with Will is set to make Will Trent season 5 feel even more unrecognizable. Of course, this is no bad thing. After all, Will Trent already did plenty of reinventing author Karin Slaughter’s source novel series before the series even started. As surprising as it might sound, Will Trent’s supporting hero, Michael Ormewood, is originally a major villain in the book series, and he is brutally killed off before the end of the first book. The fact that Will Trent managed to completely reinvent Ormewood’s role in the ABC show proves that the series can survive its shocking exits, despite how much they will admittedly impact the cast’s chemistry. Release Date January 3, 2023 Network ABC Directors Howard Deutch, Eric Dean Seaton, Holly Dale, Lea Thompson, Patricia Cardoso, Sheree Folkson, Bille Woodruff, Erika Christensen, Gail Mancuso, Geary McLeod, Jason Ensler, Mark Tonderai, Paul McGuigan Cast Ramón Rodríguez Will Trent Erika Christensen Angie Polaski Writers Inda Craig-Galván, Henry 'Hank' Jones, Karine Rosenthal, Adam Toltzis, Antoine Perry Creator(s) Daniel T. Thomsen, Liz Heldens