Anna and Luke were pivotal to the initial success of The OC, so why did they both leave the show so early? Created by Josh Schwartz, The OC was a teen drama that aired on Fox from 2003 until 2007. The series was set in Orange County, California, focusing on the character of Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie). A troubled teen from a broken home, Ryan is eventually adopted by Sandy and Kirsten Cohen, moving to live in the couple’s opulent home. Touching on questions of class and lightly skewering the tropes of teen dramas, The OC quickly became a hit with audiences.
At first, the show drew heavily on the cultural clash experienced by Ryan. However, The OC season 1 is also remembered for featuring several love triangles. Most prominently, the show pitted Ryan in a battle against Luke Ward (Chris Carmack) over the affections of Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton). Separately, and with a comedic touch, Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) spent much of the show’s first batch of episodes caught between his competing feelings for Summer Roberts (Rachel Bilson) and Anna Stern (Samaire Armstrong). Given the fact that Carmack was a regular cast member, with his name appearing in the opening credits, and Armstrong was a recurring guest star, it came as a surprise when both actors left the show by the start of season 2. Why did that happen?
Schwartz has revealed that that Anna and Luke left The OC because, as an inexperienced showrunner, he’d made the mistake of burning through too much plot too quickly. Schwartz’s comments as a part of a retrospective interview with Uproxx, in which he said: “Part of it was I had never done this before, so the learning curve was steep. Part of it was I didn’t watch a lot of these shows, and the ones that I loved did not make it past one season. So, there wasn’t a lot of instruction. If I could go back in time and do it all over again, I would have for sure kept Anna and Luke in the show.” Schwartz added that looking back on it, he would have slowed certain storylines down. He also mentioned that a spinoff focused on Anna was briefly considered.
The abruptness with which Anna and Luke were written off was evident in the writing. Although she gets a touching farewell in episode 21, titled “The Goodbye Girl”, Anna’s desire to move back to Pittsburgh comes nearly out of the blue. Luke fares considerably worse. No longer positioned as an antagonist to Ryan, he’s reduced to comic relief and begins a brief fling with Marissa’s mom before deciding to stay with his father in Portland. Anna and Luke would both return to The OC in guest roles. Luke factors into the premiere of season 2, while Anna shows up in two episodes of season 3 to help Seth and Summer get back together. For many viewers of The OC, of course, it was Anna that should have ended up with Seth.
Still, regardless of which couple fans happen to prefer, the handling of Luke and Anna points out to a larger problem with The OC. As much as the show liked to tease the teen dramas that came before it, in addition to others which aired contemporaneously, from Dawson’s Creek to One Tree Hill, Schwartz’s series was ultimately just as guilty of indulging in the contrived conventions of the genre. In its gorgeous pilot episode, which was helmed by Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, The OC looked like it would prioritize aspects like friendship and the inequities between communities over stereotypical relationship angst. That proved not to be the case, as The OC gradually gave into melodrama as it progressed. While the show was still enjoyable in many ways, it was nonetheless hampered a lot of missteps and missed opportunities.