Glenn Howerton confirmed he hasn’t officially left It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the landmark FXX comedy. When news broke that Howerton was reportedly leaving Always Sunny and had signed on for a new NBC comedy, A.P. Bio, many fans were worried that this would be the end of Dennis Reynolds, The Golden God.
At the end of season 12 of Always Sunny, the series created room for Howerton to leave by having Dennis leave The Gang after discovering he fathered a child during a layover. The Gang wouldn’t have been the same, but it was a fitting door for the character to walk out of. At the same time, Howerton signed on for the lead role for A.P. Bio, a new comedy from Lorne Michaels and Seth Meyers. While he’s not the only member of The Gang to take work outside of Always Sunny, it certainly seemed the most final.
Related: It’s Always Sunny Season 13 Cast Update
However at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour, as reported by The Wrap, he confirmed that he’s not entirely out of The Gang yet, saying, “I’ve not officially left yet and I hope people understand that.” A.P. Bio is about a former philosophy professor who has to take a job teaching high school A.P. biology, which he sees as a sort of fall from grace. In an effort to get back at those who have wronged him, Howerton’s character uses the students for his own vindictive means. Basically, it’s another iteration of Dennis Reynolds. Alongside Howerton, Patton Oswalt will appear as the principal of the high school. Howerton divulged a little more about the series, saying:
“This is just a totally separate project. Look I mean I hope people, I think one of the tough things about doing a show for 12 years is people might have a hard time seeing you as anything else. I realize that, that could be a little bit of a struggle for me as an actor. But that’s why it was important for me to get do something with someone who has a distinctive voice. […] You know I wasn’t even planning on jumping into anything else. But I read the script and I saw it was Lorne Michaels and Seth Meyers and I couldn’t pass it up. But mostly I just love the script and the character.””
Always Sunny has been renewed for two more seasons with FXX (season 13 is set to air later this year), both of which seem likely to feature Howerton. He created Always Sunny with fellow co-stars Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day in 2005 and it has since become the flagship for FXX. Kaitlin Olson joined the mix and the series started as a sitcom about four friends who own a bar, before it then transformed (with the brilliant inclusion of Danny DeVito as Dennis and Dee’s father) into a series that is all at once smart, hilarious and totally unpredictable with what it will do with its characters. Marketed as a Seinfeld-but-worse type of series, Always Sunny has changed the face of FX, and spinoff network FXX, for the foreseeable future.
Howerton is hardly the first member of The Gang to develop side projects in addition to Always Sunny. Day has ventured into feature films, McElhenney is currently writing and set to direct Minecraft: The Movie and Olson stars in a brilliant and equally offbeat television show The Mick on FOX. Eventually, a reporter asked if any production on A.P. Bio would hinder his appearance on Always Sunny. “Absolutely not,” Howerton said.
More: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 13 Delayed a Year
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia season 13 is expected to premiere in 2018 or 2019 on FXX.
