Damon Wayans Jr’s Coach was one of the original residents of the loft in New Girl, but he left after the pilot episode. Wayans came back in season 3 and was promoted to a series regular in season 4, after which he left again – here’s why. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether, New Girl debuted on Fox in 2011 and came to an end in 2018 after seven seasons. New Girl was very well received by critics and audiences, who praised the series’ sense of humor and the performances of the main cast, especially that of Max Greenfield, who was considered the breakout star of season 1.
New Girl followed Jess (Zooey Deschanel), a bubbly and offbeat teacher who after a bad break up moved into a loft with three men: Nick (Jake Johnson), Schmidt (Greenfield), Coach, and Winston (Lamorne Morris). The group was often visited by Jess’ best friend Cece (Hannah Simone), who ended up becoming a very important part in the lives of everyone in the loft. The main group went through some changes throughout the series, with Coach being replaced by Winston after the pilot episode, and Jess leaving for a while and Reagan (Megan Fox) taking her place.
Although Coach didn’t stay for long at the beginning, he wasn’t forgotten by his former roommates, who casually mentioned him a couple of times. The in-universe reason for Coach’s departure was that he moved in with his then-girlfriend Malia; behind the scenes, Wayans was also part of the cast of Happy Endings, which was renewed for a second season while he was in New Girl, and so had to leave. Happy Endings was cancelled after its third season, and Wayans returned in season 3 of New Girl. However, Coach left again at the end of season 4 when he moved in with his new girlfriend, May, and Wayans’ reasons were different this time.
Wayans didn’t have any other commitments at the time, and instead simply opted out of any contract renewals, leaving Coach out of the fun once again. Season 4 had plenty of time to give Coach a new reason to leave, and the creative team left the door open for his return in future episodes. Wayans made guest appearances in the subsequent seasons and Coach was often mentioned by the rest of the characters. Of course, he couldn’t be left behind in the final season, where he attended the one-year anniversary of Furguson’s death and confronted Nick over a minor problem between them.
Wayans kept himself busy in-between guest appearances after leaving New Girl: he lent his voice to Wild Arms in The Land Before Time: Journey of the Brave, appeared in the films How To Be Single and Super Troopers 2, and had minor appearances in the series Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Curb Your Enthusiasm, before joining the cast of Happy Together. Although fans didn’t have enough time to get fully acquainted with Coach, his presence brought an extra dash of fun to the loft, even more so because the series never forgot about him.
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