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Why Did Elizabeth Keen Leave The Blacklist? Her Exit Drastically Changed The Future of The Show
Monday, April 17th, 2023
There’s no question that Megan Boone’s exit from The Blacklist transformed the trajectory of NBC’s popular crime series. But why did Elizabeth Keen leave The Blacklist and who’s decision was it to kill Boone’s character? We’ve got all the answers, below.
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The Blacklist, NBC’s long-running crime thriller, follows the story of Raymond ‘Red’ Reddington (James Spader), a former US Naval Intelligence officer who becomes a high-profile criminal. After escaping capture for decades, Reddington surrenders to the FBI and gives them the “Blacklist,” a compilation of the most dangerous criminals in the world. He collaborates with FBI special agent Elizabeth Keen, played by Boone, to help catch the criminals in exchange for immunity from prosecution. As one of the original cast members of the show, Boone played Keen for eight seasons before her exit in 2021.
In an interview with the Daily Actor in September 2013, Keen opened up about how she first got involved in The Blacklist and why she was drawn to play Elizabeth. “Once I got ahold of The Blacklist and I read it, I was immediately kind of drawn to the character Elizabeth Keen and I worked really hard on it for about a week before I met with Eisendrath and Bokenkamp and Joe Carnahan, who directed it,” she said. “The audition process actually drew me closer and closer and closer to the piece. By the time they decided to cast me, I was already really sort of in this world and it was an amazing collaboration at that point because I felt so involved, and then read with Diego Klattenhoff and Ryan Eggold and then they brought in James Spader.”
The Blacklist debuted in September 2012 and it’s currently in Season 10. NBC revealed in February 2023 that Season 10 would be the show’s final season after a decade on the air, according to our sister publication, Deadline. The show had to undergo a major transition after Boone and the show’s creator, Jon Bokenkamp, departed. “After 10 years, hundreds of Blacklist cases and more than 200 episodes produced, we’re honored to reach our conclusion,” Executive Producer John Eisendrath said in a statement to our sister site. “It’s been incredibly fun to create the strange, devious and delightful Blacklisters to challenge Raymond Reddington and our FBI Task Force each week.”
Considering the series success during Poone’s involvement, why did Elizabeth Keen leave The Blacklist? Keep reading to find out.
Why did Elizabeth Keen leave The Blacklist?
Why did Elizabeth Keen leave The Blacklist? Actress Megan Boone left The Blacklist to peruse other opportunities — and the decision was a “mutual” one between her and the show, Deadline reported in June 2021. The publication also said that Boone’s leave was decided ahead of the Season 9 renewal, which allowed writers of the show to carefully plan her character’s storyline in Season 8 around that.
After her final episode aired in June 2021, the actress reflected on her final moments on screen with an emotional Instagram post. She posted a (now-deleted) photo of her character alongside Spader, who’s played her costar for eight years. “This experience, for me, has been an entire life inside of my own life,” Boone wrote in the caption, according to Deadline. “These eight years playing Liz Keen have helped me better define the world and myself, as she set out to do the same. Liz sought incorruptible familial bonds and collided with powerful forces to reveal the boundaries where a cruel, indifferent world ended and she began.” She also thanked her cast and crew and The Blacklist’s guest stars. “What a list. What a dream. Thank you all,” she said. Bodenkamp also bid farewell to his lead star. He wrote on Twitter: “You have been an incredible collaborator, a tireless partner, and I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve built together.”
Shortly after confirming her eight-season run, Boone launched her production company, Weird Sister, and signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television. Under the agreement, Bone would develop and produce new series projects for the indie TV studio, Deadline reported. “I am beyond excited to have a home at SPTV where I can branch out and continue to work with this incredible team,” Boone said at the time. “They have been instrumental in my career, and fundamentally believe in my vision for Weird Sister… I’m thrilled for this new chapter.
How was Elizabeth Keen written off The Blacklist?
How was Elizabeth Keen written off The Blacklist? To account for Boone’s planned exit at the end of Season 8, writers transformed Liz from an FBI agent to a dangerous criminal (and it’s later revealed that she was No. 1 on the Blacklist). She went against her former mentor after she watched Reddington kill her mother. (The show hinted that Red was actually Liz’s biological mother, Katarina Rostova, who had facial reconstruction surgery to become Reddington.)
In the Season 8 finale, “Konets,” Red asks Liz to kill him and spare him from his terminal illness so that she’ll look “untouchable” to the rest of the blacklist. He tries to convince her by saying he’ll give her a letter from her mother. But when Liz can’t shoot Red, she’s shot in the back by one of Neville’s loyalists while meeting with Red. She fell into Red’s arms, bled out and died, wrapping up her character’s arc for good.
John Eisendrath told Entertainment Weekly in October 2021 that her death had a huge impact on other characters. “Liz’s death has had a profound effect on our characters is inevitable but where they’ve landed in her absence is surprising and wide-ranging,” he said, adding that even with Liz’s absence “the criminal world has just kept ticking along, which at a certain point becomes impossible for our heroes to ignore.”
The Blacklist airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on NBC.
For more on primetime shows, check out our photo gallery on the best nighttime soaps ranked.
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> In 1990, the supernova that was ABC’s short-lived David Lynch series was something altogether new, a traditional soap on an alternately dreamy and nightmarish acid trip. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 episode that revealed that Laura Palmer had been killed by her possessed father. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> In 2017’s Showtime revival, Lynch muse Laura Dern finally gave a face to Diane Evans, the FBI secretary to whom Special Agent Dale Cooper was always dictating messages.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount Network Western pulls no punches, and neither do any of the members of the rough-and-tumble Dutton family. Well, maybe Jamie. (But he’s adopted.) <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The outta-control Season 4 finale that gunned down John, took aim at Kayce and blew up Beth. Or <em>tried</em> to, anyway. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> As of Season 5, Sheridan has written or co-written every episode of the series, which has thus far spawned two prequels, <em>1883</em> and <em>1932</em>.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> As much as we may hate actually going to see the doctor, we can’t get enough of medical dramas set in hospitals. Plus, this long-running NBC series featured George Clooney, whose Dr. Doug Ross was the original McDreamy. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 episode in which Ross saved a child trapped in a storm drain left us breathless and helped propel Clooney to superstardom. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The series was created by Michael Crichton. Yes, the same man who gave us <em>Jurassic Park. </em></p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> There was no “there” to which Tyler Perry’s OWN soap wouldn’t go. Yet neither Jeffrey Harrington stabbing his homophobic Mommie Dearest in the breast implant nor Veronica Harrington setting her estranged husband on fire is <strong>What We’ll Never Forget:</strong> That would be Crystal R. Fox’s fierce portrayal of long-suffering Hanna Young. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> In 2022, Tika Sumpter, who played Candace Young, tied the knot with co-star Nicholas James, aka off-kilter Officer Justin Lewis.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Over the course of its 2016-22 run, the creators of the NBC series proved master manipulators where our emotional well-being was concerned. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The unbreakable bond between the Big Three — the Pearson siblings. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> So upset were fans upon learning that a slow cooker was the cause of Jack Pearson’s death that the makers of the responsible appliance posted a Facebook message addressing the incident. “We love [Jack], and we love you, too. Don’t further add to our heartbreak by no longer using Crock-Pot Slow Cookers.” </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Unlike its American brethren, the British sudser makes a big deal of the “little people.” In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a “have” amongst the “have-nots” who populate Albert Square and hang at its beloved Queen Vic pub. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The 2008 tearjerker in which Dot Cotton recorded an episode-long farewell monologue to former hubby Jim. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> For 28 years running, June Brown’s Dot wore the same dress on Christmas Day. </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> In a way, we grew up with the characters on Aaron Spelling’s 1990-2000 Fox hit, which originated as the fish-out-of-water story of sheltered Minnesota twins transferred to schmancy West Beverly High. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The heated debates that erupted over Season 3’s Brenda/Dylan/Kelly triangle. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Since the network wasn’t initially as sold on Luke Perry or the character of Dylan McKay as Spelling was, the EP at first paid the future teen idol’s salary himself.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> While we could wax poetic about the shocking plot twists which befell the Lyon family as they fought for control of their hip-hop dynasty, the truth is, what we <em>really</em> loved was Taraji P. Henson’s trash-talking Cookie. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Sadly, the show will likely be most remembered for star Jussie Smollett staging a fake attack against himself. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Henson darn near got a spinoff focused on her character, but that Cookie crumbled before the proposed show could launch.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Love It:</strong> Nineteen seasons in, Shonda Rhimes’ medical drama never forgets that sometimes all it takes to get a <span style="text-decoration: line-through">patient</span> series off life support is a transfusion of fresh blood. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Season 5’s finale, which kept us waiting till the last second to learn whether Izzie Stevens or George O’Malley died. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Original cast member Ellen Pompeo was TV’s highest-paid actress — to the tune of $20M/year — when she stepped away from her role of Meredith Grey in 2022.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> The suburbs-set 2004-12 series beautifully combined slapstick comedy with dark drama while chronicling the lives of Wisteria Lane’s residents… as seen through the eyes of a dead neighbor! <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Early in Season 1, Gabrielle Solis mowed her lawn in a full-length evening gown to prevent her hubby from finding out their hunky young gardener had been too busy tending to her needs to do the chore himself. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Said gardener was played by none other than a post-<em>Passions</em>, pre-<em>Chesapeake Shores</em> Jesse Metcalfe.</p>
Image: Fox/Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> After Aaron Spelling spiked his <em>Beverly Hills, 90210</em> spinoff with <em>Dynasty</em> vet Heather Locklear as Amanda Woodward, it went from plain and boring to wild and crazy. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 2 scene in which a back-from-the-dead Kimberly Shaw ripped off her wig to reveal her scarred head. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> Years after the show ended, Locklear dated and even got engaged to former leading man Jack Wagner, who’d played her love/hate interest, Dr. Peter Burns.</p>
Image: Aaron Spelling Prods./Courtesy of the Everett Collection
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> ABC’s answer to <em>Dallas</em> was heavy on the glitz and glamour and even heavier on the catfights and spectacles. (Moldavian massacre, anyone?) <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Joan Collins’ Season 2 debut as Blake Carrington’s ex, Alexis, who elevated bitchcraft to an art form and moved the series out of Dullsville. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The role of the scheme queen was originally supposed to go to Sophia Loren. Elizabeth Taylor and Jessica Walter were also pursued, Collins told <em>W</em> in 2018. </p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Based on Grace Metalious’ novel, ABC’s 1964-69 serial about a small town with big secrets was so addictive that at one point, three new episodes aired every week. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> Lee Grant’s stunning turn as the sublimely cynical Stella Chernak. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The exit of rising star Mia Farrow in 1966 not only killed the popular Allison/Rodney/Betty triangle with Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Parkins’ characters, it began the series’ slide toward the primetime graveyard.</p>
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<p><strong>Why We Loved It:</strong> Only one thing ran deeper than the oil wells on CBS’ 1978-91 smash, and that was the grudges onto which the Ewing and Barnes families held with a viselike grip. <strong>We’ll Never Forget:</strong> The Season 9 finale, in which the “late” Bobby Ewing stepped out of sometime wife Pamela’s shower and erased Season 8. <strong>Fun Fact:</strong> The Season 4 episode that resolved the “Who shot J.R.?” cliffhanger is the second-highest-rated primetime telecast ever. (FYI, Kristin Shepard did it.)</p>
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