'The Mindy Project' Season 5 Cast: Chris Messina Will Return But Not As Series Regular

In early May Hulu announced that "The Mindy Project" will return to the streaming service for a fifth season. Now, it appears that one of the series stars will return, but in a much lighter capacity.

TVLine has learned exclusively that when the Hulu comedy returns for Season 5, Chris Messina who plays Shulman & Associates OB/GYN doc Daniel "Danny" Alan Castellano, will no longer be a series regular. However, the actor is not leaving the show for good as he will continue to pop in and out of Mindy's life as a recurring guest star.

In Season 4 Messina's Danny started as Mindy's (Mindy Kaling) fiancé, but the engagement was called off in the midseason premiere episode, "Will They or Won't They." Since that episode Danny has appeared sporadically in the series. Though Messina's character is often mentioned, he is rarely seen like in episode 21, "Under the Texas Sun," when Mindy has a conversation with Danny's new girlfriend while he is off-screen in the shower.

It will be interesting to see how Minday and the gang will deal with Danny's departure, what reason the show will give that he is absent, as well as who will be introduced to fill the role of frienemy and love interest to Kaling's character.

"The Mindy Project" should be use to this kind of cast shakeup as a number of characters have been removed and replaced over its four-season run.

The biggest change occurred in Season 1 when Amanda Setton who played the office receptionist Shauna Dicanio, Stephen Tobolowsky who played Dr. Marc Shulman and Anna Camp who played Mindy's best friend Gwendolyn "Gwen" Grandy all departed the series. Xosha Roquemore and Adam Pally, who play Tamra Webb and Dr. Peter Prentice, were brought in to fill the void left by the character's departure.

"The Mindy Project" Season 4 finale "Homewrecker" will air on July 5.