‘The Blacklist’ Season 5 Spoilers: Why Did Enrique Murciano Exit Ahead Of Premiere?

“The Blacklist” Season 5 will no longer feature Enrique Murciano’s character, Julian Gale, in its upcoming episode.

Murciano himself made the announcement via his Twitter account, where he told fans that series creator Jon Bokenkamp just informed him that he will no longer be reprising his role in the hit NBC TV series. According to TV Line, Murciano joined “The Blacklist” in the last four episodes of Season 4 as an FBI investigator. Unfortunately, the real reason behind his departure was not disclosed.

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The publication also revealed that Murciano had an option in his contract which states that he could return as series regular next season. However, this wasn’t approved by the people behind the series.

Meanwhile, Murciano’s exit came just a month after it was announced by NBC that “The Blacklist: Redemption” has been officially canceled. The network’s decision to axe the series opened an opportunity for Ryan Eggold to return to “The Blacklist” Season 5 as Tom Keen, according to Deadline. “The Blacklist: Redemption” was canceled by NBC after garnering a total of only four million viewers and a 0.8 demo rating across its eight-episode run.

“The Blacklist” Season 5 will have a total of 22 episodes. The mothership series stars James Spader and Megan Boone. The former plays the role of Red, while the latter plays the role of Elizabeth. Originally, “The Blacklist” aired on Monday nights, right behind “The Voice.” But after its first season, NBC decided to move it to Thursday nights. This resulted in improved ratings for the show. In fact, “The Blacklist” has been dubbed as the third highest-rated and most watched NBC scripted series behind newcomer “This Is Us” and “Chicago Fire.”

The series was created by Bonkenkamp. He also serves as executive producer alongside John Eisendrath, John Davis, John Fox, Michael Watkins, Daniel Ceron, Lukas Reiter, Rick Orci, Dan Knauf and Spader. Other cast members include Diego Klattenhoff as Donald, Harry Lennix as Harold, Amir Arison as Aram, Mozhan Marno as Samar, Hisham Tawfiq as Dembe and more.

“The Blacklist” Season 5 is slated to premiere on NBC on Oct. 4.