Warning: spoilers for Season 1 of The Gilded Age are in play. If you haven’t caught up, you may want to tread lightly.
Downton Abbey writer/creator Julian Fellowes landed another highbrow society-driven hit with HBO’s acclaimed drama The Gilded Age. The recently announced Season 2 is currently filming, with news following that some recurring actors from Season 1 have been promoted to full-time cast members for the future. The flip side of that coin, however, points to several cast members having confirmed their exits, at least for the time being. And yes, Jeanne Tripplehorn is one of them.
Don’t Expect Jeanne Tripplehorn To Return To The Gilded Age Any Time Soon
Currently, fans of Jeanne Tripplehorn can anticipate her role in the Prime Video exclusive action-drama The Terminal List. As I took part in the press day for one of the newest TV shows in Amazon Studios' pipeline, what we've learned so far about Chris Pratt’s new gig was pretty much confirmed. But that's for another time.
Since no news had been revealed about Sylvia Chamberlain’s potential return to The Gilded Age, I had to ask the actress if there was anything we should expect from her in this upcoming season. Which lead Jeanne Tripplehorn to tell CinemaBlend that she won’t be returning to the HBO series, and her confirmation was accompanied by her further thoughts on the matter:
I don’t think you’re gonna expect Mrs. Sylvia Chamberlain. No, I’m not going into Season 2. That’s not to say that she’s not gonna show up at another point in the series. She kinda served her character’s purpose in Season 1. It all came to a nice little ending.
Tripplehorn's ostracized widow Mrs. Sylvia Chamberlain was instrumental in helping young Marion Brooks (Louisa Jacobson) in her attempt to marry during the first season. Engaged to the dashing lawyer Tom Raikes (Thomas Coquerel) against the will of her Aunt Agnes (Christine Baranski), Marion's heart was broken by Tom by the ending to The Gilded Age’s season finale, as he marryied another woman of better means.
With that particular story arc coming to a halt, one can see why Jeanne Tripplehorn feels that Sylvia Chamberlain may have run her course in the cast of The Gilded Age. Her exile status made her a key candidate to assist Marion in her plans, but now that this love connection has failed, some parties are going to want to make themselves scarce in the potential fallout. Which totally explains another cast member that’s taken their leave from this New York of antiquity.
The Gilded Age's Thomas Cocquerel Also Won't Be Back
Pretty soon after Season 1 of The Gilded Age had concluded, that aforementioned burst of cast-member promotions happened. With all those actors in the household staffs of the series’ family attaining regular cast status, the first fairly huge departure was confirmed by Deadline, as Australian actor Thomas Cocquerel, Mr. Raikes himself, also won't be back for Season 2.
This exit also makes sense for the moment, as Marion does seem to have a promising new relationship in the works. Still, that doesn’t always mean cast members have to leave to make way for the new. If there’s any consolation in this new Gilded Age update, it’s that Jeanne Tripplehorn is satisfied with what she’s done with the time she had on the series. That, and she went on to play a really forceful Department of Defence bigwig in The Terminal List.
The Chris Pratt starring show hits Prime Video on July 1st. Meanwhile, the complete first season of The Gilded Age is available for streaming, provided you’re an HBO Max subscriber.
