FBI: Most Wanted Showrunner Breaks Down Spoilers for Julian McMahon’s Surprising Exit

As teased earlier this year, Julian McMahon has officially left FBI: Most Wanted. The actor left the show during Tuesday night’s episode after a three-year stint on the series, becoming the latest regular to depart from the procedural. Full spoilers are incoming, so proceed with caution if you’ve yet to see FBI: Most Wanted‘s “Shattered” episode…

McMahon’s Jess LaCroix and the rest of the Fugitive Task Force were busy tracking down psychotic killer Harley (Toby Hemingway) when the killer quickly gained the upperhand in a shootout. Harley shot LaCroix, making McMahon the first regular whose character was killed off on the show.

FBI: Most Wanted boss David Hudgins said McMahon approached the writer’s room at the beginning of the season, revealing aspirations to pursue other creative endeavors. The writers then put their heads together on the best way to write LaCroix off the beloved police procedural.

“Ultimately, what we kept coming back to, was the premise of the show, which is most wanted—we’re chasing the most dangerous of the dangerous, the baddest of the bad. And inherent in that job is the constant risk that you can get hurt or killed in the line of duty,” Hudgins told Give Me My Remote in a post-mortem. ” The more we discussed, the more we thought about it, we just decided this is true to the premise of the show. We thought it was emotional, we thought it was dramatic, and also tragic, all of which we felt were good things for story. And so we decided to have this be Julian’s ending.

He adeed, “We also decided…there’s a version of this episode where it could have just ended with his shooting, but we wanted to play the emotion, the fallout, the drama of it. Which is why you have those scenes at the end of Barnes and Hannah coming to tell Sarah [about Jess’ death], and [Sarah] and Byron going to tell Tali. So the [combination of the] shock of the moment, with also the reality and the fallout from it, and, frankly, the emotion, we felt like that was the way to do this exit.”

The showrunner then went on to confirm that LaCroix is “dead-dead” and won’t be coming back to show.

FBI: Most Wanted is now streaming on Pluto TV and Paramount+.