Virgin River is losing a season regular ahead of its eighth season.
Marco Grazzini, who has played Mike Valenzuela on Netflix’s romantic drama series for the last five seasons, is leaving after the current seventh season, showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told Deadline on Thursday.
Aside from Grazzini, the other regulars of Virgin River‘s Season 7 are expected to return in Season 8, but recurring actress Lauren Hammersley will also be exiting after the current season following her seven-season run as Charmaine.
Smith said that both Grazzini and Hammersley could return in subsequent seasons. “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 of the casting changes. “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.”
Spoiler Alert: Details about Season 7 of Netflix‘s Virgin River are below.
Season 7 of Virgin River had a clear exit for Mike, as the love triangle with Mike, Brie (Zibby Allen) and Brady (Ben Hollingsworth) came to a resolution, with Brie choosing Brady at last.
Later in the season, Mike struck up a romance with medical investigator Victoria (Sara Canning), and the show hinted that he might be heading to Los Angeles to be with her. Canning is also confirmed not to be returning for Season 8.
Virgin River, which is based on the book series by Robyn Carr, follows the residents of a small town in North Carolina. The series also stars Alexandra Breckenridge, Martin Henderson, Colin Lawrence, Annette O’Toole, Tim Matheson, Sarah Dugdale, and Kai Bradbury.
Virgin River is currently streaming on Netflix.