Psych: Every Character Who Was Supposed To Return In The First Movie

Psych: The Movie brought back several familiar faces, but was supposed to feature even more actors who weren’t able to return. The movie, which was released three years after Psych wrapped up its eight-season run on USA, reunited the cast for a mystery that pitted them against an old foe: Mena Suvari’s Allison Cowley.

As a onetime enemy from season 4, Allison Cowley was a deep cut, but she wasn’t the only character outside of the Psych family to be involved in the investigation in San Francisco. Key supporting characters like Woody the Coroner (Kurt Fuller) and Buzz McNabb (Sage Brocklebank) were of course included, as were notable guest characters from past seasons, such as Nick Conforth (Ralph Macchio), Ewan O’Hara (John Cena), and Mary Lightly (Jimmi Simpson), who all made cameos over the course of the movie.

The film went through a number of changes when it was in development, with the biggest of which being a huge rewrite caused by Lassiter actor Timothy Omundson’s stroke. However, other changes had to be made as well, such as characters being taken out of the script. Here’s everyone who was supposed to return for Psych: The Movie, but didn’t.

Ally Sheedy as Mr. Yang

In Psych, Ally Sheedy played Mr. Yang, the first character who wasn’t a one-and-done villain. Mr. Yang was a crazed serial killer who had a strange obsession with Shawn (James Roday Rodriguez). Though she was killed off in Psych: The Musical, the writers had an idea to use her again regardless. The original plan for the scene where Shawn dreamed about seeing Mary in a racquetball outfit included Shawn seeing Mr. Yang’s head in the refrigerator. Unfortunately, the scene didn’t make it into later drafts due to budget issues.

Curt Smith as Himself

In a season 5 episode, Shawn was dealt a shock when visiting the home of Declan Rand (Nestor Carbonell), where he encountered Tears for Fears lead singer Curt Smith, played by himself. Shawn expressed his undying love for Smith, which seemed to unnerve the singer. He returned in Psych’s Clue tribute episode, where he was chased by a panther off-screen. In season 8’s zombie episode, Gus (Dulé Hill) had a hallucination of Curt Smith turning into a zombie and attacking him. According to Steve Franks, Smith would have appeared with Mary and Mr. Yang in Shawn’s dream, but the Tears for Fears world tour stood in the way.

Cary Elwes as Pierre Despereaux

Pierre Despereaux (Cary Elwes) was a cunning art thief who has served as both an ally and an antagonist in the past. His last episode brought into question everything that viewers knew about Despereaux by suggesting that he may have been an Interpol agent, but the show never provided a definitive answer about who he really was. It’s likely that Psych: The Movie would have cleared that up, because Cary Elwes was one of the first actors to be cast. In fact, it was Elwes who accidentally leaked that the movie was in the works in the first place. The intention was for him to be involved, but he was ultimately removed from the story due to scheduling conflicts.

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