Natalie Zea Returning to 'The Following' Despite Character's Close Call With Death

By Brittney R. Villalva, Christian Post Reporter Friday, July 12, 2013

Natalie Zae will return to "The Following" for the show's second season.

Despite concerns over whether her character would continue in the series, Zae has confirmed she will return for the second season of "The Following." The television series crime drama, which airs on Fox, surrounds around an FBI agent who is on the hunt for a serial killer and his cult following.

Zea plays the role of Dr. Claire Mathews, ex-wife to the serial killer. Throughout the first season the serial killer, played by James Purefoy, plots to kill Claire. Season one of the show ended in a cliffhanger with Claire being severely injured. But in a recent interview, Zea revealed that while her character will return for the beginning of the second season, she may not be there to stay.

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"My concern, and [creator] Kevin Williamson's concern, was always, is there more story to tell with Claire? And we both discovered that maybe there wasn't," Zea said in a recent interview with TV Guide magazine.

Sources told the magazine that Fox executives were the ones who decided that Claire's character would stay, but where her character goes is still up in the air.

Zea has also appeared in the day time soap "Passions" and has a recurring character on "Dirty, Sexy Money" which airs on ABC. Later this summer she will appear on CBS' "Under the Dome." Executive producer Neal Baer described Zea's new role as a recurring character in the summer series to TV Guide Magazine as "a woman who makes an alarming appearance."

"If you think Jim Rennie" -- one of the tale's antagonists, played by Breaking Bad's Dean Norris -- "is trouble, you haven't seen trouble yet," he joked. The series will be based of by a sci-fi novel written by Stephen King.