Hollywood is no stranger to forcing people back into the closet but this really takes the cake.
NBC's upcoming series Rise is based on the story of Lou Volpe, a real-life actual person who worked as a high school teacher and struggled for years with his own sexuality.
Volpe's life was the inspiration for Michael Sokolove's novel Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, a Struggling Town, and the Magic of Theatre which chronicled Volpe's controversial decision to put on a production of Spring Awakening in his small-town home.
The whole story mashes together Volpe's own struggles with his sexuality as well as the town grappling and clashing with the decision to put on the sexually charged musical at a high school.
Unfortunately, the producers of the upcoming series based on all of this, NBC's Rise, decided the character based on Volpe, Lou Mazzuchelli, wouldn't need to struggle with coming out of the closet and instead decided to just make the character straight.
Jason Katmis, one of the showrunners behind the massively successful Friday Night Lights, said he made the decision so he could relate better to the character of Mazzuchelli. Speaking at the Television Critics Association press tour panel earlier this week, Katmis also said the change didn't mean the show wasn't going to engage with LGBTI+ themes, just that it would shift the focus from the teacher to the students.
During the TCA panel, Katmis said the show would include a trans character and another student who would be struggling with his sexuality, both of which would be explored through the overarching story of the musical.
The role of Mazzuchelli is going to be played by How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor with the cast also featuring Rosie Perez, Stranger Things' Barb Shannon Purser and Moana's Auli'i Cravalho.
