Megan Boone left The Blacklist because she wanted to focus on new opportunities and projects. Currently, she is working quite hard to get her production company, Weird Sisters, off the ground. When she isn’t doing that, she is paying attention to her exquisitely put-together garden.
It took some doing but fans of The Blacklist eventually got used to not having to see her face on the show. Before her well-planned departure from the show, Megan Boone had spent eight seasons, essentially eight years, from 2013 to 2021 portraying FBI agent and profiler, Elizabeth Keen.
The NBC crime thriller also featured veteran actor James Spader in the role of Raymond “Red” Reddington, the central character of the show who is a former US Naval Intelligence officer turned high-profile criminal, and who later surrenders to the FBI and gives them the Blacklist, a compilation of the world’s most dangerous criminals, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
He mostly works with Boone’s character Elizabeth Keen to achieve his goals. It makes sense then that Boone’s departure threw a major curveball that fans struggled to recover from leading to questions about why she left, and what she is currently up to. Let’s find out.
Why Megan Boone Left Blacklist
Megan Boone left Blacklist because she wanted to try her hand at new projects. Even before the release of the show’s ninth season, fans of the show, who are quite familiar with the show’s penchant for plot manipulation, were quite hopeful of the possibility that Boone’s character, Elizabeth Keen, who was murdered in the season eight finale, would somehow return to the show.
The hope sprang from the events of the third season when Keen faked her death to avoid Red (Spader’s character). However, any fan who was harboring that hope must not have been aware of the public statement released by the showrunners and Boone which indicated that the eighth season would be the actress’ last.
As earlier stated, Megan revealed that her decision to leave was motivated by her desire to pursue other projects. Her statement did not stop some fans from wondering if the talented actress had had a falling out with the producers. However, any notion of that was disabused by a follow-up statement from the showrunners which stated that the decision to part ways had been mutual.
How Long was Megan Boone on Blacklist?
Megan Boone was a vital member of the cast of The Blacklist for eight years indicated by the eight seasons she spent as one of the show’s main characters. Shortly after the season eight finale, confirmed as Boone’s last episode, the 40 year-old actress took to her Instagram page to post a now-deleted photo of her character and Spader, and also attached an emotional message to it.
The message reflected on her experience on the set of the show over the previous eight years. She wrote that her time as Elizabeth Keen had helped her define the world and herself in a better way. She also expressed her gratitude to the care and her co-stars on the show. Her love was reciprocated by Bodenkamp who bid her farewell and thanked her for being an incredible collaborator.
Megan Boone revealed to Daily Actor in September 2013, when the show’s first season premiered, that she immediately felt a kinship with the character Elizabeth Keen after reading the script of The Blacklist, and that by the time she was cast in the role, she had become so accustomed to the character to the point where she was almost one with her.
Her spectacular performances throughout the eight seasons she spent on the show backed up her claims.
What is Megan Boone Doing Now?
Megan Boone launched her production company Weird Sisters in 2021. She also signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television as the icing on the cake. She is currently in the process of developing several projects for the production company.
She revels in the fact that the company is led by a woman as well as the fact that it embraces differences. She also said she views alternative perspectives and abnormalities as essential strengths in the people she works with, the character-driven stories she wants to tell, and the unique worlds she looks forward to crafting with a diverse team of collaborators.
While her role as Elizabeth Keen undoubtedly raised her stock as an actress significantly, she has appeared in several other productions before and after her role in the hit series. Just before joining the set of The Blacklist in 2013, the talented actress who made her debut in 2001, appeared in Law & Order: Los Angeles from 2010-2011, as well as Sex And The City 2 in 2010.
She has also starred in several independent films, including Stephen Elliott’s Cherry in 2012. She played a vital role in Adele Romanski’s drama Leave Me Like You Found Me, which helped her land the Best Actor Award at the 2012 Gen Art Film Festival.
Megan Boone was also cast in the Amazon limited series The Underground Railroad, released in 2021, which is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Colson Whitehead.
Is Megan Boone Coming Back To The Blacklist?
The answer to that question would be an unequivocal no. The events of the ninth season of the series have already indicated that the entire cast and crew have moved on from any storyline that would require the resurfacing of Elizabeth Keen, the character portrayed so well by Megan Boone.
In a way, fans may likely see the actress return as Elizabeth Keen but that may only be possible through flashback scenes that may be added to the show which is well into its tenth and final season.
What was Megan Boone’s Blacklist Salary Per Episode?
Megan Boone’s salary per episode during her time on the set of The Blacklist was reported at $100k from an initial $70k per episode when the show premiered in 2013. Given the fact that she spent eight seasons on the show, it goes to reason that one would think that much of her current over $3 million came from her involvement in the series.
Does Megan Boone Have a New Show?
Megan Boone’s most recent appearance on screen came in her role as Jenny in episode 2 of the American crime drama series Accused. The series, which premiered on Fox on January 22, 2023, is based on the 2010 British series of the same name, created by Jimmy McGovern.
Each episode opens in a courtroom and chronicles the lives of ordinary people, often introduced as the accused. The audience has no knowledge of their crime or how they ended up on trial but is then told the events that lead them there from the defendant’s point of view.
