Did ‘That ‘90s Show’ write off Topher Grace’s Eric character?
Eric is out.
In the second part of Season 3 of “That ‘90s Show,” now streaming on Netflix, Eric (Topher Grace) seemingly got booted off the show.
In the seventh episode, Eric’s wife, Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon), says that he was offered his “dream job.”
She reveals that Eric is going to Skywalker Ranch to shadow George Lucas and write a book about the making of the “new” Star Wars movies, Donna explains to Leia (Callie Haverda), the couple’s daughter.
Since the show is set in the ’90s, she’s referring to the “Star Wars” movie trilogy that starred Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen.
“It happened really fast,” Donna says. “He got the call, packed his bag and said goodbye to me in Wookiee.”
Eric will now be living in California, she says, far from their family home in Point Place, Wisconsin.
Donna explains that she’ll divide her time between her work in Chicago, their family home in Wisconsin, and California with Eric.
Grace, 46, has been playing Eric since “That ‘70s Show” premiered in 1998.
That show aired on Fox from 1998 to 2006, following teen friends in Point Place, Wisconsin, including “Star Wars” obsessed Eric; smart Donna (Prepon); spoiled Jackie (Mila Kunis); vapid Kelso (Ashton Kutcher); flirty Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) and rebellious Hyde (Danny Masterson, who in real life was sentenced to 30 years to life for raping two women and is incarcerated. Kunis and Kutcher landed in hot water for writing letters of support praising the convicted rapist for his “positive influence”).
Grace reprised his role as Eric in “That ’90s Show,” the spinoff series that premiered in 2023, following Eric and Donna’s daughter, Leia, and her friends.
Kunis, Kutcher and Valderrama also made cameos in the first season of “That ’90s Show,” but Kunis and Kutcher said they don’t plan to return.
“We did our thing,” Kunis, 41, told Entertainment Tonight in April.
When “That ‘70s Show” ended, Jackie and Kelso were broken up, and she was with Fez. But in “That ‘90s Show,” Jackie and Kelso were back together.
Kunis has criticized that plotline.
“My husband and I are together in [That ’90s Show], which is weird ’cause we shouldn’t have been,” Kunis told Access Hollywood in September 2023. “My character would be with Fez. I think that I ended up with Wilmer’s character. And I was like, ‘Why are you and I together?’ ”
Kunis added, “Now we’re, like, 20 years — no, 16 years later, whatever it is — and now we’re married with a kid. And I was like, ‘I don’t know about this one.’ ”
About writing original cast members like Grace off the show, showrunner Gregg Mettler told TVLine, “We always hope to have everybody back. We come up with ideas, we bat things around … but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of it all, it’s about scheduling.”
He continued, “I will be grateful for the rest of eternity for the contributions of the legacy cast members from ‘That ’70s Show’ in Part 1. Them returning was a blessing, and they handed the show off in a delightful way.”
The Post reached out to reps from “That ‘90s Show” and Grace for comment.
“That ‘90s Show” Part 3 is streaming on Netflix.
