Why Was Amanda Wagner Killed Off on ‘Will Trent’?

From the start of Will Trent, Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) was a force of honor, leadership, fashion, and, of course, love for Will (Ramón Rodríguez). So it’s an understatement to say that her death in Season 4 was a total shock to the system.

Amanda had survived several close calls, including being shot in the chest while protecting Angie (Erika Christensen) during the headquarters hostage situation and making it out unscathed during an active shooter situation at the mall. So you could forgive fans for thinking she was untouchable and being truly stunned when the character was summarily executed off-screen by a minion of Adelaide (Mallory Jansen).

Indeed, Amanda’s death has left several fans of the show in a furor. On the Will Trent Reddit fan page, there are endless threads about this very subject. One fan wrote, for instance, “Amanda was not just Will’s matriarch, she was ours. I may or may not come back, certainly not with the same dedication.” Said another, “I knew Seth was going to be killed off early in the season because I’ve always felt at its core, Will Trent, is a love story. Will & Angie. Seth never really becoming enmeshed with the rest of the cast/story line was also a give away. But AMANDA! Stupid decision. She was such a central character to me.”

So why was Amanda killed off on Will Trent?

Well, the night that the episode aired and revealed her death, Variety posted an interview with the showrunners, in which Karine Rosenthal explained, “Amanda has been the character who has protected Will for as long as she has known him. So this gives us the opportunity for a completely new dynamic in the GBI, because her replacement will not have that same relationship with Will. Her death had the most impact on the most amount of characters. It really sets everybody reeling from this enormous loss. So it’s such a reset for our characters in a way that is painful but exciting for Season 5.” The executive producers also praised Sonja Sohn for exhibiting “grace” in her exit and praised her work on the show as “impeccable.”

Liz Heldens later told TV Insider of the decision to kill off Amanda and Seth (Scott Foley), “Going into Season 5, it just really felt like we needed a reset and some new energy, and some new dynamics… These were really hard and emotional decisions for the writers. There was a lot of back and forth in the room, but, eventually, we did what we thought was best for the future of the show. But yeah, both of them are heartbreakers for sure.”

Sohn herself has indicated there’s more to the story that she intends to share at some point, but for now, all we know about the real reason for Amanda’s ouster from Will Trent is that it serves as a “reset” for the main characters. And as we’ve seen, Will grappled with his grief over Amanda by dreaming of her in younger form (portrayed by Sydney Park), and the finale left him teaming up with Angie, Faith (Iantha Richardson), Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), and Franklin (Kevin Daniels) for what appears to be a monster sex trafficking case … just as the GBI prepares to welcome in a mystery new deputy director.

Will Trent, Season 5, Premiere Date TBA, ABC