Would it ruin the movie? Heck yes!

So what the heck is Prison Break doing to us? The show that I cannot seem to quit not only gets renewed for a fourth season, but now word comes from Kristin at E! Online that Sarah Wayne Callies will reprise her role as Sara Tancredi.

Are you kidding me? Part of the emotion and power of the season (And let’s face it, there really wasn’t much) was the fact that Sara had her head whacked off and stuffed in a box, which was then sent to Lincoln.

Now, we never got to see the contents, so they can say what they want to now to bring her back. And I actually don’t mind, because I really liked her character and honestly, that show needs a woman or two here and there.

Here is what executive producer Matt Olmstead has to say about all this:

It wasn’t because of the fans that we did that, but it was the combination of the fans’ reactions on the boards and emails, and people we, the writers, know personally would ask about it. And that led us all to have conversations internally, about the fact that there were a lot of people out there asking, “Is she really dead?”

We knew internally that when we didn’t get Sarah Wayne Callies to come back in season three and be there to portray her character’s death, as soon as it was written and filmed and we saw it on screen, we knew that it was actually a way you could describe how this wasn’t Sarah’s head in the box, basically. But at that point, we were going forward with other stories, so we kind of put that on the back burner.

But throughout that time we watched how people externally were really talking about what we thought might be the case, internally: The question of, “Is Sara Tancredi really dead?” So throughout season three we were mindful of references we’d make to and who took credit for killing her and all kinds of stuff regarding her death.

Ultimately, we came back after the strike to talk about season four, and that’s when a bunch of things kind of came together, and we then had the big conversation. Is Sarah really alive and can we bring her back? And once we opened it up, it happened really quickly.

You can read the whole interview with Olmstead in which he talks about Callies and other season 4 stuff.

They get you pulled into a story and then end it without any kind of resolution. While the show has mainly been focused around escaping from prison and running from the law, there was a love story as a subplot, one that should have been resolved.

According to the Ausiello report, it all came down to contract crap and hurt feelings. Of course.

The writers had actually planned for Sara to die sometime during the season, probably early on, maybe by episode 13 or 14. There was a needed “emotional loss” for Michael Scofield in order to provide motivation for his actions the rest of the season.

Only they had planned to make the death much more involved. Michael was supposed to have a chance to save her, but fails, which would have been something that almost killed him, but likely would turn him towards vengeance. That will still obviously happen, but not in the way that would have been better for the fans.

So why did Sara not appear in any of these episodes? It just seems to have come down to contract stuff and disappointment.

The actor who plays Sara, Sarah Wayne Callies, was up in Canada being pregnant and unable to participate until likely episode 10. But when she found out that she wasn’t going to be part of the entire season, perhaps her disappointment and looming motherhood made her just decide to quit.

They offered to fly up there to film the final scenes, but she declined. According to the writers and spokesman interviews by Ausiello, they tried hard to accommodate her situation, but it just never worked out.

It seems obvious to me that she wanted to continue to be part of this show, and when she found herself dying midway through the season, it ticked her off. And the thing was, it was going to take a NEW contract to just sign her for 13-14 episodes, instead of the entire season, and it wasn’t worth the hassle to her.

Who can really blame her? A baby coming soon, which is probably the most important thing in her life now, and then word reaches her that she needs to put in a lot of work for just a few more episodes and then she’s done forever?

So while none of us knew she had already been written off the show, we all lost the kind of conclusion that would have been more satisfying. After all, Sara was the key component in their initial escape and also helped him in season two, where they actually seemed to fall in love and long to be together.

You can read the entire interview with the Prison Break guys by visiting the Ausiello report, which has more of the story.