Sex Education is losing another fan favorite.
Actress Tanya Reynolds, who for three seasons played the alien-loving Lily on the Netflix dramedy, will not return for the show’s upcoming fourth season. The decision, which sources say was made months ago, comes as part of a creative reset for the series following the closing of the show’s Moordale High School at the end of season three.
Reynolds joins her on-screen love interest Patricia Allison, who played fellow fan-favorite Ola, as series regulars who will not return for the fourth season of the series from creator Laurie Nunn.
“It’s just the natural progression of these shows — when you have such big ensemble casts and so many characters, I think you have to let a few older characters go to make way for newer ones, which is absolutely the right thing, the way it should happen,” Reynolds told RadioTimes of her Sex Education departure.
Sources say season three will feature a mix of old and new faces as Sex Education moves on from the shuttered Moordale High in favor of a new school. Filming on season four will begin this summer. Several primary cast members are expected to return, though Netflix declined comment on those specific details.
The series stars Asa Butterfield (Otis), Gillian Anderson (Jean), Ncuti Gatwa (Eric), Emma Mackey (Maeve), Connor Swindells (Adam), Kedar Williams-Stirling (Jackson), Alistair Petrie (Michael), Mimi Keene (Ruby), Aimee Lou Wood (Aimee) and Chaneil Kular (Anwar), among others. Gatwa, it’s worth noting, made headlines in May after he was cast to replace Jodie Whittaker and become the first Black Doctor in BBC’s Doctor Who.
