FOX’s Sleepy Hollow eked by to a third season under a new showrunner, a far cry from the breakout success of its first year, while series star (and its loudest online proponent) Orlando Jones was mysteriously axed from the third run. Now, Jones brazenly admits that producers fired him from the series, complicating the possibility of a return.

You’re warned of minor Sleepy Hollow spoilers from here on out, but where the tepidly-received Season 2 somewhat sidelined Orlando Jones’ Frank Irving as an agent of the series’ initial villain Moloch, the third year disposed of either character altogether, addressing Frank Irving’s exit with a Dear John letter. Somewhat silent since the initial announcement, Jones testified to a less-than-peaceful exit in a recent fan Q&A, doubting the likelihood of a return::

I don’t think Captain Irving is coming back. And what led to me leaving was, they changed the show; it’s a different show, there is no headless horseman. When we started on ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ there was a headless horseman, and he had a shotgun. You know how awesome that was? He was shooting at people, chopping heads off, and Moloch was this big, slow-moving scary white monster dude, I mean it was incredible. So I don’t know who Frank Irving would be fighting against.

Anyway, it’s a very different show. I think the creators are awesome guys, and they just didn’t really see a place for Frank Irving in that world, and I get that, you know? Chances are, I won’t be back, because they kinda asked me to leave, so I don’t know why they’re acting like I ran off and left. They can always ask me to come back, but generally, when they ask you to leave, it’s because they don’t want you to come back.

Asked again about a guest appearance, Irving continued:

Probably not, because like I said before, they had asked me to leave. Maybe they would ask me to come back, and I would love to do a guest appearance; it would be awesome to do a guest appearance on ‘Sleepy Hollow.’

It’s at least of interest, considering Jones’ central role as a social media proponent of the somewhat-struggling series, but was FOX right to give Sleepy Hollow a soft reboot in Season 3? Should we expect Jones to bury the hatchet and bring Frank Irving back?

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