After a somewhat unnerving hiatus, Mad Men returned in 2012 with a whole new bag of tricks for its fifth season that kept the series’ loyal following tuning in week after week. The show’s spring run had a number of big changes overall including an unfamiliar state of happiness for Don (Jon Hamm) and somewhat of a grim departure by Lane (Jared Harris.) Of course, none of that even compares to the outcries upon the exit of Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) from Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce.
The implication of this event was that Elisabeth Moss would no longer be a regular on the show and that frightened people. The actress had been a fixture on the show since the first season and despite all the massive developments Mad Men has gone through since its premiere, people could always count on the award-winning drama’s feminist icon to remain front and center.
Even further, it did not appear as if there was a genuine reason to keep her on the show. There was just no way she would be able to keep running into Don at movie theaters. That had people asking ever since the fifth season finale whether or not Peggy Olson would indeed be returning to Mad Men for the series’ sixth season outside of a guest capacity.
The news today is that showrunner Matthew Weiner is not done with Moss’ character just yet. In fact, he just confirmed to TV Line that she would still be on the show, but he left it up in the air as to how much by saying, “I can’t say how much, in what capacity or what [her story] is going to be, but she has not left the show.”
Beyond that, he also compared the situation to when Don and Betty (January Jones) got divorced implying that many thought she was off the show as well. While season five gave Jones a much smaller role than in previous ones, that was blamed on her pregnancy and shooting around that for the most part. In other words, we might end up seeing just as much Elisabeth Moss next season as we have in the series’ prior runs.
Related:
Inside Scoop on Peggy Olson’s ‘Mad Men’ Exit (Video)