The Blacklist Shake-Up: Two Series Regulars Exit in Season 9 Finale
The Blacklist‘s cast list is getting shorter.
Friday’s Season 9 finale saw two series regulars leave the NBC drama: Amir Arison — who has played Agent Aram Mojtabai, the tech whiz of the FBI task force, for all nine seasons — said goodbye, along with Laura Sohn, who plays Agent Alina Park. (Sohn joined the cast in Season 7 and was upped to series regular for Season 8.)
In the finale, Aram made an announcement to his fellow task force members at the cemetery where Liz Keen is buried: “After a lot of careful reflection, I have decided to take some time away.” Elsewhere in the episode, Alina Park revealed that she was pregnant and will be taking medical leave.
Arison confirmed his departure in a statement to Deadline: “I have been so honored to play Aram Mojtabai for 9 years on The Blacklist. It is not lost on me how lucky I am to have been able to work and evolve with a role for 9 years with this extraordinary cast, crew, writers and producers.” The actor added that he’s leaving to take a starring role on Broadway in The Kite Runner: “The producers, studio and network have been so supportive of my decision, and Aram remains ‘alive’ with the potential for a possible return at some point.”
As Arison noted, he’ll no longer be a series regular on The Blacklist, but the door remains open for him to return as a guest star in the upcoming Season 10.
Overall, this season has been fun & entertaining. They took a lot of risks & for the most part it paid off. Bring on next season!
100% agree. This show is still fresh, still original, and still exciting to watch. Season 9, aka, the homage to Elizabeth keen is now over. Bring on 10. I think the runner for what’s installed for that session is mouth watering.
I’m so sad I really like his character, but glad he can be a guest. Know one remarked on Marven leaving?
You’d have to put a huge spoiler warning in the article! But Fisher Stevens did an amazing job, and he’ll be missed too!
He wasn’t a series regular.
I never watched the show beyond the pilot so I’ve just kept up with news I see on sites like this…..but wasn’t this show supposed to end in Season 5 or 6? I could have sworn I saw stories about that.
Now, not only is the show in SEASON 9, but it is still going after this?
There are ALWAYS some media sites that “predict” a show with a divisive fanbase is going to have it’s final Season every single year of it’s running.I’ll admit I was honestly surprised that Blacklist wound up getting renewed seeing as the entire premise through the Seasons was built in Red and Liz’s relationship up until this Season–but Liz is dead,Red diagnosed with a fatal illness and the creator /showrunner quit.Whether the new short Season will be it’s last or not remains to be seen.
Because of an old netflix deal it’s one of 7 shows on TV currently running witch make huge money for syndicates, goldburgs and Grey’s nbc, blue bloods, NCIS, NCIS lA on cbs, fox animated family Guy, Simpsons and bobs burgers.
Outside of that everything else is in the ok to not at al range.
So the studios will fight to keep them on air with the anchor star if possible, letting go on going part time on other stars, anything to save money.
Lot on wb was a surprise on cw because netflix deal in place covered most cost, but obviously long term wb wants to move superheroes to HBO, so netflix money isn’t worth it, same as disney /netflix marvel deal
The Netflix deal was sweet and definitely kept a lot of CW shows afloat —but that deal ended in 2019–one of (if not THE major reason) CW is up for sale and is the trouble it’s in.
They’ll be missed especially long-term cast member Amir Arison! This season has been on fire too! Glad to see it’s coming back for season 10!
This show has been epic. . After Elizabeth’s death i thought the excitement would be gone. But my god..this show is only getting better
Sorry he is leaving, but happy for the reason
Good riddance, “Agent Park”.
Sorry to see you leave, “Agent Mojtabai”!
Sadly, Aram’s plot line in the past season was kind of weak. He would have deserved a better farewell tour.
Enough with the Elizabeth storyline. It’s so over. End it,
go back to individual blacklist people weekly.
Agreed. Enough already.
Who wants to tell them?
Then don’t watch, party pooper, ROFL!!!
Nooooooo.. It was bad enough losing Tom and Elizabeth Keen. I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it as much without Aram 😔😔
He’s funny, lovable and I don’t think you’ll be able to replace his charisma. 😥😥😥. I tell you if anymore of that crew leave the show it will go down hill. 😥😥😥
Agreed. I absolutely hate what they did to Liz in her last two seasons, but miss her character from before she was butchered. Still miss Tom too, he was my favorite character from season 2 to 5. But Aram was truly a ray of sunshine the show desperately needed. There’s no replacing what Aram brought to the show. I find myself only rewatching the first 6 seasons, and without Aram season 10 will have a huge void.
I felt Liz was more likeable when the writers didnt create fake conflict with Red. But as she seemed to be perpetually angry with him all the time she became obnoxious and frankly annoying. This isn’t Megan Boone’s fault but rather the writers for making her unlikeable and giving her terrible motivations.
I think Megan bore some fault too. She is a very limited actress.
Very limited
You do remember she was the one who wanted to leave.
Glad Liz was off the show.
Amir was my husband’s favorite . The whole cast is great. We have enjoyed inviting them into our family room weekly. It is a great show and kudos to the writers and especially the cast. We will miss Agent Park…..any word on what her future plans are?
Unknown at this point. Per Deadline, she‘s leaving „to pursue other projects“.
I’m hope this is the end of the obsession over Elizabeth Keen and that the show can finally move on from her. I get that she was a co-lead on the show, and her leaving is a very big thing for the show, but I hope this is the end and that the show moves on to telling new stories.
Obsession? she was the female lead for 8 seasons. You cannot simply gloss over the loss of an important character like that.
I like Armir’s role and disappointed he’s leaving. I’ve invested a lot of years growing to Like him. Just seems pointless now. Well that’s showbiz I guess.
I will definitely miss Amir. He provided both humor and heart. Sohn … well, I never really understood her role and it certainly seemed diminished in the last part of the season. I think the final season is off to a promising start with that freed assassin vowing he will be after Red and has a list of “friends” who can help him.
I agree and I think the writing is on the wall for the final season announcement with Young Rock taking the shows timeslot this fall. If you value the show as a network like this you wouldnt be placing midseason, especially as a veteran show going into its 10th season.
Props to NBC and the production team for keeping this a secret until airtime. Really liked Aram as a character but after nine years they ran out of storylines for him. Alina just wasn’t used well as a character, seemed to be there just to suffer. God help whoever gets hired to replace them, they’re going to have about two episodes to prove themselves. Grateful to see the Liz storyline finally come to an end, and like the setup for 2023.
Loved Adam character. Sad to see him leave, but looking forward to next season. Set up was great.
Have never heard of migraines being part of pregnancy. Just the opposite I’m my experience.
I don’t think headaches are a sign of pregnancy either. Especially coming from a neurologist, surely she have seen her regular physician when they started. It was so abrupt it’s like they set it up the last episode, saying she had a specialist neurologist (maybe after she decided not to come back). I wished Amir would’ve met a special someone to go spend time with in NY, he didn’t have any luck with the women in his life. We will be tuning in next season.
It’s good Aram is leaving . Good computer guy but a terrible FBI gent and why he was ever put in charge of the team is a mystery.
I think Cooper placed him in charge using his authority because he knows Aram is a good guy and incorruptible by Reddington. The other choices on the team have all crossed over the line multiple times while Aram is pretty much by the books.
You’re wrong, Aram became a better FBI agent. He overcame his fears, and poor gun skills. I will miss him. At first, Red was my favorite but Aram soon took Red’s spot in my enjoyment and appreciation.
They are all terrible FBI agents. I don’t like to abandon shows, I’ll see it to the bitter end, but it has become a chore to watch for many seasons.
Yet, you still watch enough of the episodes so that you can complain about it.
Yes, I said I usually don’t abandon shows. I liked the first 3 seasons, and commented praising it. If you still like it, good for you.
The only show I bailed out after the first season, was “Under the Dome”, that was the worst show I ever watched.
This is typical of the type of ‘milk-toast’ character he was. He had an opportunity to be part of a fast-pace tech company only to give it all up and return to the FBI to be part of a team. Then when it was time to step up when he took over head of the unit, but he basically became a book quoting suit without any semblance of intelligence.
It’s doubtful he’ll be missed much except by those who view being a loser in life.
Sorry your parents didn’t love you
This! Ha!
At least he has parents.
A lower like someone who thinks that it is spelled “milk-toast”?
LOL
Lol.. saved me the trouble.
It was explained many times on the show that Aram felt humbled and unworthy of the position. Not to mention he was very nervous about the step up to a leadership position. It has nothing at all to do with his intelligence but more for his overwhelming respect for Mr Cooper whose shoes he felt he could never fill.
I hope that things get better for you Scott.
The actor in question spent ten years on a popular show. Not much of a loser at all.
I will miss the character next season but thrilled that the actor is going to Broadway and hope he wins a Tony.
I guess this show will just stumble on until Red is the only one there, since he’s the only one that they absolutely can’t carry on without.
So glad Aram is leaving. His whiney childish character always irritated me. Now if they would just permanently ignore Elizabeth it might really be good.
I have watched Blacklist since the very beginning. Aside from my favorite, Reddington, Aram, Dembe, Cooper, ok, all of them brought such spark to the show. I will certainly miss Aram. I can’t wait for Season 10.
I’ll miss Aram’s character. He brought this sweet humanity to the team. I hope he drops in now and then.
This was probably the best season yet and I can’t wait to see how the heck Reddington survives all those attempted assassinations (hope the series doesn’t end with his death, though it wouldn’t be a big surprise if it did).
I’ll miss Amir. His character was honorable, funny, human. I hope he returns more than once.
It opens plenty of opportunity to bring interesting new characters to the team to replace the ones who are leaving.
It was fun watching James Spader announce getting a renewal for next season (forget which late night show it was). He was so excited; it was written all over his face. It was great seeing James smiling as Raymond rarely, if ever, smiles and it’s always never a full smile; always pain or irony behind it. Congratulations James Spader, you powerful acting genius.
It was on Tonight Show on same network… a fine season… I like the delayed start next season so we can watch straight through..
After all this time I still am very surprised by the fact that no one has ever mentioned the call out to Hitchcock’s North By Northwest ” film with the misidentification of Cary Grant’s character as a “Mr. Kaplan” serving as the root of the story. C’mon old time movie fans :)
I’m sad about these departures, especially Aram, who is my favorite character on the show. I’m hoping they bring in some interesting new characters to give the team a little new life.
And PLEASE make Deirdre Lovejoy’s Sen. Pannabaker a series regular! She is the best and I adore that character.
Thank you for Laura Sohn leaving blacklist. Would have been better if she were killed off. But she’s gone that’s what counts.
Will miss Bull but at least The Black List continues. 2 extraordinary series !