The Controversial Reason Luke Grimes Left True Blood Before Hitting Yellowstone Fame

Yellowstone made many actors household names, but all of them obviously had plenty of other projects before joining Taylor Sheridan's ranching saga.

Of all the other cast members, Luke Grimes certainly had one of the most prominent TV careers, as he starred in the sixth season of the hit vampire drama True Blood, playing the role of James, a vampire romantically involved with Jessica.

However, for some unknown reason, Grimes left the show before Season 7, forcing HBO to recast his role with another actor. Now, it looks like fans finally got the answer to the question that's been bothering them for so long: why did the actor decide to leave the show so early?

While Grimes' representatives claimed at the time that he left True Blood because of a scheduling conflict, Hello! magazine suspects that a more controversial reason forced the actor to drop out of the project. According to the source, True Blood's writers were trying to deepen Grimes' character by making him fall in love with Lafayette, a gay medium.

Reportedly, Grimes was really against this development and refused to play the character with such a romantic storyline.

The late Nelsan Ellis, who played Lafayette, was apparently disturbed about this as well, at one point telling Vulture about the whole situation.

'You quit your job because… really? I'm just… I'm over him. You quit your job because you don't want to play a gay part? As if it's… You know what? I'm going to stop talking,' Ellis said, obviously reluctant to accuse his co-star of homophobia.

While fans of the actor are definitely concerned by this news, they argue that nothing official has ever been said about this situation, so judging Grimes for the alleged controversy would be unfair. After all, he went on to have a pretty great career after leaving True Blood, so his decision to focus on other projects was wise after all.

Fans are happy that Grimes got the opportunity to portray John Dutton's younger son and hope to see more of the lovable actor in future seasons of Yellowstone.

Source: Hello!