Despite The Spin, Kirk Acevedo Has Been “Let Go” From Fringe
Kirk Acevedo as Agent Charlie Francis in 'Fringe'
After actor Kirk Acevedo (aka Agent Charlie Francis) posted on his personal Facebook page that he had been fired from Fox’s hit series Fringe Fox executive producer Jeff Pinkner immediately went into damage control.
From TV Guide:
According to exec producer Jeff Pinkner, “like all things on Fringe, there is more to this story than meets the eye.” In fact Pinkner not only confirms that Acevedo “was not fired,” he hints that we’ll see more Agent Francis in season 2. Literally.
“We have already seen two of him on the show,” teases Pinkner. “We have already met the second Charlie. He had a scar on his face.” Looks like The Observer wasn’t messing around when he said that there’s more than one of everything.
A lot of news sites have bought into this spin from Fox assuming that it means Acevedo may somehow still be working on Fringe. But we’re not buying it.
First, we already knew Acevedo’s character of Charlie Francis would be appearing in season two of Fringe because season two scenes with him have already been filmed! They were filmed towards the end of season one before production was shipped off to Vancouver. So announcing that we will definitely see Agent Francis in season two without qualifying the scenes have already been filmed is quite misleading – spin as they say to make everyone think Acevedo hasn’t been let go from the series.
Second, Acevedo has told Lee Hernadez at Latina directly that:
“It’s called not picking up my option. But at the end of the day, you got fired!”
Third, Fox have already put out the casting call for an actress to play a female replacement agent by the name of Katherine -someone who commands a lower pay check than Acevedo.
At the end of the day you can say Fox have “let go”, “sacked”, “fired”, “dismissed”, “given him the pink slip” – or whatever you want to call it – in the end the outcome is the same. Kirk Acevedo is no longer a cast member of Fringe and references to his appearance in upcoming episodes, at least for now, relate to what has already been filmed.
Fox exec’s can put as much spin on it as they want, but until we hear that he’s been requested to return, that’s it for Agent Francis in a rather unceremonious fashion – and that plain sucks as he’s one of the great yet under utilized characters on the series.
We agree with Fringe Television:
May 23rd, 2009 at 2:51 am
That sucks… I definitely will not see Fringe anymore… I wasn’t thrilled with season finale, and Charlie was my favorite!!
Now that he’s not there, I have no reason to see it anymore
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:25 am
“someone who commands a lower pay check than Acevedo.”
Umm…Is this FOX’s way of cutting the corners? Will the qualities of show we see get worse? Dollhouse will probably be produced with a lower budget now that they’ve successfully ‘negotiated’ a 2nd season. But Agent Charlie Francis is a character that viewers love and someone they’ve developed for the whole season so I just don’t see the reasoning behind this…fail.
And for the FBI agent to be female when you already have a female lead is interesting. I’ll reserve further judgment until I see how they’re gonna spin this and get rid of Agent Charlie. Another ‘creature’ of the week?
January 11th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Looks like he is back. I’m just wondering how he is. Hope they explain that one soon.
September 17th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
Charlie is back for season 3, bitches!