The final season of The Affair will run without one of its original stars.
Joshua Jackson has officially exited the Showtime series and won’t appear in the fifth and last season, sources confirm to The Hollywood Reporter. His name was conspicuously absent from a press release announcing the show’s premiere date of Aug. 25.
As THR reported following season four, Jackson had been considering leaving The Affair for a while, but at the time details of season five were still being worked out. His character, Cole, reached something of a natural endpoint last season with the death of his ex-wife, Alison (Ruth Wilson).
Season five will chronicle the aftermath of last season’s horrific events and find the remaining characters, including Dominic West’s Noah and Maura Tierney’s Helen, coming to terms with the consequences of their choices. The show will also jump forward in time as Alison and Cole’s now-adult daughter, Joanie (Anna Paquin), tries to piece together what happened to her mother.
Sanaa Lathan, Julia Goldani Telles and Jadon Sand will continue as series regulars in season five. Other returning castmembers include Omar Metwally, John Doman, Kathleen Chalfant, Russell Hornsby, Max Fowler, Abigail Dylan Harrison and Jake Siciliano. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Claes Bang, Lyriq Bent and Michael Braun join the show for its final run.
The Affair is one of two veteran Showtime series slated to end their runs in 2019; Homeland is also entering its final season. They’re part of a lineup of originals on the premium cable channel that includes Shameless, Billions, Black Monday, The Chi, Kidding and Ray Donovan, along with the upcoming City on a Hill and limited series The Loudest Voice.
Jackson, meanwhile, can currently be seen in Netflix’s When They See Us and will star with Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington in Hulu’s Little Fires Everywhere, which is due to premiere in 2020.
