Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith to Leave ‘Glee’ After Season 3

Glee Creator Ryan Murphy has disclosed that Glee’s biggest stars- Lea Michele, who plays Rachel, Chris Colfer, who appears as Kurt and Cory Monteith as Finn- will be leaving the series after the third season wraps.

The reason cited by Murphy- who, before his hit about a singing musical high school helmed the salacious, multi-season Nip/Tuck– is realism. Murphy said in his Hollywood Reporter comments that the audience- the same audience, ostensibly, that accepts a football team dancing to “Single Ladies” and “The Carver”- will get angry if the show attempts to strain the bounds of credibility by having Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith on the cast for more than three seasons:

“You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic,” Murphy said, “or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year.”

Michele’s commentary on the decision was upbeat:

“We always knew we’d graduate in real time,” she wrote. “It’s all part of the plan and it’s all good! It’s going to make Season 3 amazing!”

Will you keep watching Glee after the big three stars leave?