{"id":650146,"date":"2026-03-12T11:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/650146\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:16:17","slug":"2-longtime-cast-members-leaving-ahead-of-season-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/650146\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Longtime Cast Members Leaving Ahead Of Season 8"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Season 7 of Netflix\u2019s Virgin River<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMike Valenzuela has solved his last case in Virgin River, for now. Marco Grazzini<\/a><\/strong>, who has been on the Netflix romantic drama for five seasons, the last four as a series regular, is leaving after the current seventh season.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s not coming back for Season 8,\u201d Virgin River showrunner Patrick Sean Smith tells Deadline.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso not returning next season is Lauren Hammersley<\/a><\/strong>, who has been playing Charmaine for the entire seven-season run of the show to date, as a series regular for the first four seasons and recurring thereafter. Both could return in subsequent seasons, Smith said.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two departures after Season 7 match the total of series regular exits over the show\u2019s first six seasons, with Grayson Gurnsey (Ricky) leaving after Season 4 and Mark Ghanim\u00e9 (Dr. Cameron) after Season 6. (Jenny Cooper, who plays Mel\u2019s sister Joey, has continued to recur after a series regular stint in Season 1.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cast of Virgin River has been pretty stable, with few departures and only one new series regular cast addition since Smith joined as showrunner after Season 4, Kandyse McClure as Kaia in Season 5. (There also have been only three promotions to series regular over 7 seasons, with none planned for Season 8, even for Teryl Rothery, who has been a staple on the show as Muriel since Season 1, or John Allen Nelson, who plays Mel\u2019s biological father Everett. \u201cBut they\u2019ll definitely be back and continue to be a big presence on the show,\u201d Smith said about the duo.)<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile cast shakeups are one way long-running series can reinvent themselves, that is not something Smith is planning while still looking to keep the series fresh.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor me, I\u2019m just trying to look to the longevity of the show and making sure that the characters that we\u2019re keeping have enough story engine in them to keep going,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I can\u2019t say there are any specific cast shakeups planned, but I think we will have to start to \u2014 as characters run their course \u2014 make some decisions and bring in some new blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBeside Grazzini, the rest of Virgin River\u2018s Season 7 series regulars are expected to return in Season 8, even Ben Hollingsworth, whose character Brady is involved in a scary crash in the final seconds of the finale. <\/p>\n

\n\tA police detective and a Marine friend of Jack\u2019s (Martin Henderson), Mike was introduced as a recurring character in Season 2. Grazzini was promoted to a series regular at the start of Season 3.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter pining for Jack\u2019s sister Brie (Zibby Allen) ever since she came to Virgin River in Season 3, Mike started dating her at the end of Season 5 after she broke up with her on- again off- again flame Brody (Hollingsworth).<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t(L to R) Marco Grazzini and Zibby Allen in \u2018Virgin River\u2019 Season 7<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tMike\u2019s proposal to Brie, one of Season 6 finale\u2019s cliffhangers, was rejected by her early into Season 7. His hopes to rekindle their relationship when the two teamed up to search for Charmaine were dashed, and Brie ultimately reunited with Brody. Mike was last seen in the Season 7 finale getting cozy with a rebound of his own, Victoria (Sara Canning<\/a><\/strong>), the visiting medical investigator who confessed to Mike about having had a crush on him years ago during her cop days.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMike probably will be on the back burner for a little while until we have something we\u2019ve written,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe have so many relationships already that I think a little bit of that was just a sort of happy ending for this chapter for Mike to find his way back to Victoria and to explore what happens there. But I love Marco and could see his character coming back in a more substantive role if the creative is right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with Grazzini, gone is Canning, who joined Virgin River as a recurring in Season 7. Another new Season 7 recurring cast addition, Cody Kearsley (Clay), will again recur next season as Jack\u2019s mysterious new ranch hand continues to search for his missing sister. The return of the third major new recurring player this season, Matty Finochio <\/strong>as Hope\u2019s (Annette O\u2019Toole) temp assistant Tony while Lizzie (Sarah Dugdale) is on a maternity leave, is TBD.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cActually, I found out a few weeks ago that he has booked a series regular on another show, so he\u2019s unavailable for the first part of our shoot, but I would love to have him back,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe was such a breath of fresh air and so funny and just a nice energy, especially up against Hope, that would want to squander that and not revisit again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) and Jack\u2019s adoption storyline, \u201cout for now\u201d is Rachel Drance, <\/strong>who recurred as expectant mom Marley for the past two seasons, with both birth parents not in the picture in Season 8, Smith said. <\/p>\n

\n\tExpected to recur next season is Austin Nichols<\/strong> who did a cameo at the end of the Season 7 finale as Eli, the pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon operating on Mel and Jack\u2019s adopted newborn son who had worked with Mel during her time in Nurses Without Borders.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe also booked something else, so we\u2019re working around his schedule. We have such talented cast members that everybody wants them,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLauren Hammersley as Charmaine Roberts in episode 410 of \u2018Virgin River\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tCharmaine had become a favorite Virgin River cliffhanger plot device, with the character being part of many big season finale twists, the latest in the Season 6 finale involving her abduction. (Previous included the news of her pregnancy and the reveal of her paternity lie.) Charmaine was MIA for the entire seventh season until she was found and rescued by Brie.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf we are speaking of characters that have \u201crun their course,\u201d as Smith put it earlier, for Charmaine that may have come halfway through her pregnancy, which lasted five seasons, possibly a TV series record.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo plans for Charmaine to be back in Season 8 but that\u2019s not to say, when the right time comes, I\u2019d love to bring the character back for something other than more cliffhangers and more lies on pregnancies,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Season 7 of Netflix\u2019s Virgin River. Mike Valenzuela has solved his…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":650147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,276113,276114,276115,173,67,132,68,276116],"class_list":["post-650146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-lauren-hammersley","tag-marco-grazzini","tag-sara-canning","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-virgin-river"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116215924981857273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}