When Revenge aired on ABC in 2011 it seemed as though it would become the next great primetime soap opera. The series, which was loosely based on Alexandre Dumas' "The Count Of Monte Cristo", ran until 2015 but saw a massive drop off in quality before then. A lot of this had to do with the secret behind-the-scenes drama going on between the cast, the crew, and even the network. Even though fans weren't aware of what was really going on with Revenge, which starred the MCU's Emily VanCamp, things have started to get leaked over the past year. Here's what we know about what really went down...
ABC's Brutal Demand
Revenge was supposed to be short, but ABC wanted a series that could last a decade. Because the series creator and showrunner, Mike Kelley, only designed the series to be so long, he was forced to elongate the story to make it suitable for the network and this was a disaster.
"I told ABC that I had 60 episodes I could do, and they were horrified," Mike Kelley said to Variety in a fascinating 10-year reunion special.
One of the problems with this request is that Mike didn't have the entire story mapped out. Because of this, he had to stretch the story in ways that didn't benefit it or the characters who had to repeat a lot of the same plot points. On top of this, ABC didn't want any of the leads to be killed off. So, the story and characters suffered deeply, leading to on-set squabbles, quitting, and ultimately cancelation.
The Cast Suffered And Secretly Fought
Emily VanCamp (Emily) and Josh Bowman (Daniel) actually fell in love on set and eventually welcomed a baby into the world. But life on the set of Revenge wasn't all rosy.
According to an article by Deadline, Ashley Madekwe, the show's sole Black performer, left the series at the start of the third season for 'storyline reasons'. Clearly, she wasn't happy and even went on Twitter to tell fans that she wanted her character to die.
Her departure didn't look good on the cast (who she may or may not have actually gotten along with) but it definitely didn't look good on the producers who were left with an all-white show.
"It’s embarrassing, frankly, to look back and to know that that’s where we were. I was thinking of two families which were Caucasian, and I was not thinking about the socio-political terms beyond the initial reason I got into it, and really at the center of that is white privilege. I wish I had done better," Mike explained.
In the Variety reunion special, Ashley did add some context to why she actually left the show by saying, "I think I was less willing at that age and at that stage in my career to confront the complexities of race than I am now. Some of it came from fear, I think. It’s not the actor's job to make sure the show is diverse. But I do think I could’ve pushed harder to make maybe elements of being a woman of color more apparent to my storyline."
On top of this issue with Ashley, it's clear that Christa B. Allen (Charlotte) had some issues with her co-stars. While fans didn't know this while the show was on the air, earlier this year they found out when the cast of Revenge decided to do a virtual reunion... without Charlotte. While the organizers claimed she was left out due to a lack of space, Christa inferred that this treatment wasn't anything new:
"I’m getting a lot of DMs about the Revenge virtual reunion happening on February 6th," Christa wrote to her fans on Instagram. "Of course I would’ve loved to be there with you all, but as per usual I was not invited. if the entry fee for this reunion is a bit much during these tough times, feel free to come hang out with me on TikTok live the same time, same day for free."
Many of Christa's fans believed that she was being bullied and purposefully excluded by the other cast members and that there was some hidden tension between the cast that was being glossed over by everyone but Christa. This was seemingly confirmed by Madeleine Stowe (Victoria) when she wrote a comment about Christa on Instagram:
"I’d like Revenge fans (and everyone else) to know some of the ways I know @christaallen. She has a work ethic that I marveled at every single day she came to set. I saw her endure some things at 18 years of age that would bring a weaker person to their knees, but she has such inner dignity that she gracefully kept moving."
The Creator Left
Aside from the cast's secret struggles, the producers of the show dealt with a major shakeup when the creator and showrunner, Mike Kelley, decided to leave at the end of Season 2. This caused the executive producer, Mark B. Perry, to do the same.
"My deal was up at the end of Season 2, and I said, 'I need to be able to do this in a smaller order and I need to tell you when it’s going to end,'" Mike Kelley explained. "They said, 'No, we want this to go forever, so why don’t you make this a big splashy soap opera? It doesn’t have to be so connected to ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ parameters.' I was burnt out. It was just a very hard job and at the end of it, I think ABC really wanted to go in a direction I didn’t want to go in, and I left. It was a very hard decision, but I was also so tired that it wasn’t an impossible choice."
This choice absolutely decimated the cast, particularly Emily VanCamp, who felt that Mike was the anchor of the show. From there, the show took a major nosedive until its eventual cancelation.
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