Moordale students are dropping like flies ahead of Sex Education Season 4 — and we now have a better understanding why.
Tanya Reynolds, who has played fan-favorite Lily since Season 1, is not returning to the Netflix dramedy. The news comes one week after fellow cast member (and Reynolds’ on-screen love interest) Patricia Allison — aka Ola — announced her own departure.
“I’m not [returning], actually, which is sad, very sad,” Reynolds told the UK’s Radio Times. “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.”
As viewers will recall, Season 3 of Sex Education culminated in the closure of the aforementioned Moordale Secondary School. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Moordale will — spoiler alert — remain closed in Season 4 as the series relocates to a different school featuring a mix of new and returning characters. Production is expected to get underway later this summer.
Reynolds is the third cast member to announce her exit. Fellow Moordale alum-turned-Bridgerton breakout Simone Ashley was the first to confirm that she wouldn’t be reprising her role as Olivia.
In addition to Reynolds, Allison and Ashley, the Season 3 ensemble consisted of Asa Butterfield (as Otis), Gillian Anderson (as Jean), Ncuti Gatwa (as Eric), Emma Mackey (as Maeve), Connor Swindells (as Adam), Kedar Williams-Stirling (as Jackson), Alistair Petrie (as Mr. Groff), Aimee Lou Wood (as Aimee), Mimi Keene (as Ruby), Chaneil Kular (as Anwar) and Mikael Persbrandt (as Jakob).
Are you sad to see Reynolds go? Excited about this planned reset? Drop your thoughts in a comment below.
