Lea Michele, Chris Colfer & Cory Monteith are leaving Glee

Glee stars Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith will be leaving the show.

The end of the next season will see the stars graduate from McKinley High.

“We made that decision and I involved Chris and Lea and they thought that was a good idea. They both trust the writing and trust me and felt that it would be great to have an open and closed experience for them to go out while they were on top,” said creator Ryan Murphy.

Cory wasn’t consulted about the decision, but Ryan explained, “He knows he was a sophomore when the show started.

“You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticism you for not being realistic or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year.

“I’m much more interested in Lea’s character – not so much on her relationship with Finn, but more on what her dreams are beyond high school and how she plans on getting them. That’s what my senior year was about.”