'Glee' Season 4: Damian McGinty Not Returning and Other News

The "Glee" panel at Comic-Con was a fairly informative one, even though the secret of what this year's format will be wasn't exactly revealed. It seems that Ryan Murphy & Co. are playing that one close to the chest for the time being.

What they did reveal was a bit more about who will be back and in what capacity. The biggest news was that "The Glee Project" co-winner Damian McGinty will not be back as Irish exchange student Rory Flanagan... at least, not for the first half of the season. Murphy noted that McGinty could come back in the second half, and that sort of move wouldn't be unprecedented, as Chord Overstreet did the same thing last season.

Other "Glee Project" finalists Samuel Larsen and Alex Newell will be returning, however, as will Vanessa Lengies, who plays Sugar Motta.

Notably, the panel revealed that, other than the trio of series regulars of Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Chris Colfer, it is unlikely that any other cast members will be in every single episode. That's telling of the new format, as it implies that there will either be full episodes set in New York or Ohio, or else there will just be so much jumping around that not everyone will be included in every episode.

It was also mentioned that the second Britney Spears episode will feature numbers from Heather Morris (Brittany) and Lea Michele (Rachel), proving that episodes will be split between Ohio and New York. The panel noted that "modern technology" would keep the storylines connected, so... maybe some group performances over Skype?