Why did Baz leave Animal Kingdom? The star and the showrunner told two very different stories
Barry "Baz" Blackwell was shot in the season 2 finale of Animal Kingdom in 2017 and died of his wounds in the season 3 premiere in May 2018 — removing Scott Speedman from the show's core lineup after two seasons. Ask why, and you'll get two different answers depending on who's talking.
How Baz died
The exit was pure Cody family business. In the season 2 finale, Baz framed Smurf for murder and had her arrested, clearing his path to grab the family's money and run to Mexico. He never made it — a masked shooter put multiple bullets in him, and he died in the hospital as season 3 opened.
The whodunnit ran for another season before the show revealed Mia Benitez pulled the trigger, on Smurf's orders. In that family, betrayal was always an inside job.
The showrunner's story
Executive producer John Wells framed the death as the plan all along. The series was based on David Michôd's 2010 Australian film, where Baz dies in the first 15 minutes — so the character was living on borrowed time from episode 1.
Wells told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that the show had actually delayed the death by a year because there were more Baz stories to tell, and that Speedman had always been told the role wouldn't run five or six seasons.
"It came kind of organically out of the storytelling, " Wells said.
The star's story
Ellen Barkin, who played Smurf, told it differently. In a 2019 HuffPost profile, she said Speedman simply asked to leave to pursue other projects — and got his wish without a fight.
The sting, for Barkin, was the contrast: she said she had asked to leave the show herself and been refused, and that her male co-stars "were treated with much more respect" on set.
Which version is true?
Probably both, in pieces:
- Wells' version — Baz's death was on the shelf from day one, borrowed straight from the source film.
- Barkin's version — Speedman wanted out, and the timing of the death followed the request, not the other way around.
- The tell — the exit news broke abruptly, alongside reports Speedman was joining Grey's Anatomy. Long-planned deaths don't usually surprise the trade press.
Speedman walked straight into that Grey's Anatomy role — Nick Marsh, who eventually became Meredith Grey's love interest — while Animal Kingdom filled the Baz-shaped hole with flashbacks and a younger recast. The show ran four more seasons without him. The arguing over why he left has now outlasted the show itself.