Rizzoli & Isles has been renewed for a season 5, which will deal with lots of major plot points.
The biggest might be the departure of Barry Frost (Lee Thompson Young). Young died last August but by then season 4 had been filmed.
“We will not be dealing with the departure of his character until Season 5,” Sasha Alexander (who plays Dr. Maura Isles) told Examiner.
Alexander said that there’s already been almost two months of work on season 5. There’s a new executive producer, Jan Nash.
“We have been trying to pick her brain as much as possible -- all the secrets that she has planned -- but they don’t give us the whole arc for the entire season. I think we are just going a lot deeper with the characters. I think, all around, her intention from what I am getting is stronger stories in terms of the crimes, but personal stories. Stories that are really driving these characters together. That is really the unique part of our show is you do have these characters go through these personal and life things in conjunction with the crime. There is a lot more exploring of that,” Alexander said.
“The girls are going through a lot. They are reaching this new point. Jane is back and forth with Casey [Chris Vance]. We don’t know what the outcome is going to be. That leaves them in a certain situation.”
Rizzoli & Isles is TNT’s No.1 show of all time and the No. 2 scripted series in the history of ad-supported cable television, behind AMC’s The Walking Dead, according to Deadline.
Season 5 will premiere with episode 1 on Tuesday, June 17.
Correction: A previous version of this story said that Lee Thompson Young died in September 2013. He actually died in August.
