(Image source: OnTheRedCarpet.com)

BY: CHELSEA MCGARTLAND

You're watching multisource entertainment video news analysis from Newsy. 

Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy announced several of the show’s stars would be written off by the end of the season. But, Chris Colfer, who plays Kurt on the show, says the announcement caught him off guard, like slushie facial. Entertainment Tonight has his reaction.

Colfer: “I looked on my twitter replies and I was like, ‘Oh, ok, I guess they announced something." 
Interviewer: “But you had known?”
Colfer: “I think we’d kinda known since the beginning since we started the show that these characters were gonna to grow up and they were gonna graduate eventually. I didn’t think I thought it was going to happen so soon necessarily, but I think we knew something like this was coming." 

Colfer and co-stars Lea Michele and Cory Montieth are all set to -quote- “graduate." A blogger for The Stir is hopeful that losing some characters will be good for the show’s overall health.

“... it's going to be OKAY, guys! In fact, I have a feeling we Gleeks are better off thanks to these actors' departure from the show! ...you know following their characters to college would be nothing short of painful." 

The show’s producers say they had previously discussed sticking to a standard high school timeline for the show...

“We always knew that we didn’t want this to be one of those shows where they’re all sophomores for 13 years. That seems like a dishonest way to tell the story." (Video source: Access Hollywood)

Producers plan to introduce new characters as the series continues. A blogger for Entertainment Weekly says refreshing the cast may be the key to keeping the show alive long term.

“Indeed, a rolling cast list has done some shows good in the past... Glee could learn a lot from what Friday Night Lights accomplished: a seamless, realistic transition. The problem? ‘Seamless’ and ‘realistic’ have never been Glee‘s strong points." 

But maybe this isn’t the end of the beloved characters. There are rumors of a Glee spin-off following Rachel and Kurt as they follow their dreams of becoming Broadway performers in New York City.