It’s official: season four of Netflix’s horny hit series Sex Education will be Emma Mackey’s last. So long, Maeve Wiley! While the actor had previously discussed that her character would be taking a backseat in the upcoming season, she dropped the bombshell in a new interview with RadioTimes, fittingly just after her first BAFTA win: “No I don’t think I’ll be in season five,” she said, when asked if she’d be returning. “I’ve said goodbye to Maeve.”
Season four will also be the last hurrah for Ncuti Gatwa’s character, Eric Effiong, as the actor takes up the mantle as the latest Doctor Who. But fear not – the void left by Eric and Maeve is set to be filled by some fun, new characters. In a recent S4 open casting call, the show was looking for trans actors to don school uniforms and play two new students: mysterious power couple Abbi and Kent.
As the characters enter their final year of school, and with Moordale’s future hanging in the balance following the events of the season finale, Sex Education’s characters will be moving further afield for their A-Levels, and their world is opening up to new people in the process. Krishna Istha, a comedian and writer on the show’s fourth season, shared the casting call from Laura Evans Casting that tells us a little information about the new additions.
There’s Abbi, who sounds pretty cool with her “90s Winona Ryder vibe”. She is “confident and self-assured in her gender identity” and as queen bee of her college, “every girl wants to either be like her, or be friends with her”. She is estranged from her conservatively religious family and no longer identifies as religious but still considers herself spiritual.
Then there’s Kent, Abbi’s boyfriend, whose family home she lives in. The trans-masculine character is “goofy, forgetful and a great listener”. Although he isn’t so sure about being a popular kid like Abbi, “he knows himself and feels quietly confident about his final year at college.
After introducing the non-binary character Cal in season three, played by Dua Saleh, we left Moordale with the school being sold off to developers and the students having to find somewhere new to finish up their final year. Perhaps then Abbi and Kent are students at one of the new schools the show’s lead characters find themselves at.
Although no release date for season four has as yet been announced, we can assume that the new season will be available to stream some time in 2023. We’ve waited long enough!
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