{"id":430110,"date":"2026-02-17T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430110\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T08:38:11","slug":"industry-fans-devastated-over-apparent-character-exit-this-cant-be-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/430110\/","title":{"rendered":"Industry fans devastated over apparent character exit: \u2018This can\u2019t be the end\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The latest episode of Industry <\/a>has left fans devastated with what seemed to be a sudden farewell to one of its main characters.<\/p>\n

After the fourth season of HBO\u2019s twisty finance drama<\/a> brought a long-awaited alliance between Eric Tao and Harper Stern \u2014 played by Ken Leung and Myha\u2019la<\/a>, respectively \u2014 viewers were stunned when the sixth episode, \u201cDear Henry,\u201d ended with Eric abruptly exiting their joint fund due to being blackmailed.<\/p>\n

Without Eric ever giving Harper the real reason for his exit, the episode ended with the credits rolling over footage of Eric walking down a long road, away from the camera \u2014 marking the first time that Mickey Down and Konrad Kay\u2019s show featured a character in its end-credits scene.<\/p>\n

Leung confirmed to TV Insider<\/a> that the scene was his final time appearing in season four, and to his knowledge, the rest of the show, which has not yet been renewed for season five. <\/p>\n

However, some viewers could not accept the shocking ending, with one writing on X: \u201cThis can’t be the end of Eric Tao in Industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The latest episode of HBO’s ‘Industry’ brought the end of this season’s story for character Eric Tao, played by Ken Leung \u2014 a twist that left fans devastated (HBO)\"Eric<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Eric Tao, played by Ken Leung, walked away from the camera during the end-credits scene of the latest episode of ‘Industry’ (HBO)<\/p>\n

\u201cPleaseee don’t tell me this is Ken Leung’s final episode,\u201d another commented on Instagram. A third fan chimed in on X: \u201cI\u2019m gonna be honest if Eric really is gone gone on Industry, I\u2019m gonna be extremely disappointed bc the Eric\/Harper dynamic is one of the best parts of the show and I don\u2019t really know how they\u2019re gonna replace that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One person claimed on Instagram: \u201cEric is the reason most people watched. Now that he’s been written out of the show, there’s no point in watching the final two episodes. We all know how it’s going to end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leung\u2019s castmates also shared their shock at his character\u2019s exit from the season.<\/p>\n

Myha\u2019la, who has anchored the show since its premiere in November 2020, recalled in multiple interviews how the twist stunned her when she first read the script for the episode.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally was like, that\u2019s crazy,\u201d Myha\u2019la told the Hollywood Reporter.<\/a> \u201cAnd it\u2019s so sad. We worked so hard to build this thing and now you\u2019re just going to leave me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Leung said that filming his goodbye with Harper, who is emotionally wrecked by Eric\u2019s abandonment, was cathartic in more ways than one due to filming it with his longtime scene partner Myha\u2019la.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I know, it\u2019s our last scene. So there was that in it,\u201d Leung told Insider. \u201cAnd even though we\u2019re friends and remain friends, and hopefully we\u2019ll be friends forever, to have what we created the past six years come to an endpoint, it\u2019s very poignant. It\u2019s not just sad. There\u2019s celebration in it. It\u2019s everything. It\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The season\u2019s final two episodes are set to air February 22 and March 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-430110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}