For two seasons, Fringe featured The Walking Dead actor Kirk Acevedo as FBI agent Charlie Francis. Charlie was a close friend of series protagonist Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv before she starred in Netflix’s hit show Mindhunter). He often risked his career to help her and her Fringe Division colleagues Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), Walter Bishop (John Noble) and Astrid Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole) as they dealt with paranormal phenomena.
Unfortunately, he didn’t make it all the way to the Fox show’s finale. During the second season, Olivia was the target of an assassination attempt that went horribly wrong — and Charlie suffered the consequences. Fringe fans got conflicting messages afterward about why Charlie was written out and Acevedo’s future with the cult hit series. Here’s the complete story of who Charlie Francis was, and why he only lasted three of Fringe‘s five seasons.
Charlie Francis was a member of the Brooklyn police department, but was shot and nearly killed while investigating a domestic dispute with his partner. He subsequently joined the FBI and it wasn’t long before he was promoted to second in command of the Fringe Division. Charlie and Olivia maintained a close friendship during his time on the show; she always knew she could come to him with requests for additional support or manpower if she was embroiled in a difficult case. Charlie nearly died in Season 1 when he became infected with the larvae of a chimera, but Walter developed a cure that saved his life. Unfortunately, Charlie wouldn’t be so lucky during the show’s second season.
At the start of Season 2, an assassin from an alternate universe tried to infiltrate the Fringe Division and kill Olivia. When that plan failed, the assassin killed Charlie instead and took his place. Olivia eventually killed the assassin and later found messages Charlie left behind that assured her she would be fine. An alternate universe version of Charlie then appeared throughout Season 3. Unlike his prime universe counterpart, this Charlie was never cured and took daily injections to control his chimera infestation. During Season 4, Olivia learned alternate Charlie had married Dr. Mona Foster.
While some network TV stars like Chicago Fire‘s Monica Raymund have chosen to leave their hit series, it was not Kirk Acevedo’s decision to exit Fringe. Following Charlie’s death in Season 2, Acevedo had posted on Facebook that he was fired from the Fox drama. “WELL BOYS AND GIRLS THEY DONE DID YER BOY WRONG! THEY FIRED ME OFF OF FRINGE, AND IVE NEVER BEEN FIRED IN MY LIFE!!!!” he wrote.
Fringe’s executive producer Jeff Pinkner, quickly clarified that Acevedo wasn’t fired and elaborated, “Like all things on Fringe, there is more to this story than meets the eye.” Pinkner stated that Charlie’s tale had come to a natural conclusion but teased the character’s future appearance in the show because of the alternate dimension. “We have already seen two of him on the show,” he said. “We have already met the second Charlie. He had a scar on his face.” Charlie did indeed recur throughout Season 3, though notably he didn’t return for the series finale. As for Acevedo, he returned to the sci-fi genre when he starred in SyFy’s time travel drama 12 Monkeys.
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