We’ve known for a while that Jill Soloway wanted to end “Transparent” with a movie-length musical episode, but now we know why. At this week’s Television Critics Association event for Amazon, the showrunner revealed the reasoning behind the decision they announced last fall, and it unsurprisingly it partially has to do with the departure of Jeffrey Tambor, who played Maura Pfefferman on the award-winning series.
READ MORE: ‘Transparent’ To End Upcoming Final Season With A Feature-Length Musical Episode
Tambor was fired February of last year by Amazon after two trans women involved with “Transparent” accused him of harassment, including his co-star Trace Lysette and his personal assistant Van Jones. Later, an additional accuser, makeup artist Tamara Delbridge, spoke of her own harassment as well. With Tambor out, it led to the decision to do something revolutionary.
READ MORE: Amazon Says ‘Transparent’ Season 5 Could Be A Movie Or A Short Series Of Episodes
“And when everything went down last year and we lost Jeffrey Tambor, and we went through so much as a family,” Soloway explained. “That felt like this very emotional—there are no words, there is no way to really kind of just go back to a plain old Season 5 and try to just repair by coming back.”
That departure from the normal show format would be a musical, which was an idea Soloway had before they even made “Transparent.” They were experiencing their own parent’s transition alongside their sister Faith, a musician herself, and a documentary musical was the project they had in mind after that experience.
READ MORE: ‘Transparent’ Season 5 Delayed Until 2019; Jeffrey Tambor May Be Replaced
Soloway also credits Amazon Studios Head Jen Salke for giving them the freedom to go big. They said at TCA:
“Getting to know Jen and Jen saying, ‘What would be your dream?’ She said, ‘I wanted something big.’ And I said, ‘What do you think about a musical movie?’ And she was like, ‘Great!’” Soloway said. “And we kind of dared ourselves to follow through and come through and take all of Faith’s songs that she had been writing. Faith was already starting to put songs together for a possible ‘Transparent’ musical five years down the road on Broadway. So we took the songs, we took the storyline and just finished shooting on Friday.”
There’s no date yet for the season premiere, but the show is expected to return for its fifth and final season in fall 2019.
