Why didn't Lucy Lawless return for the final season of Parks & Recreation?

[TMC]

Did Lucy Lawless return for the final season of Parks & Recreation?

Q: Did Lucy Lawless return for the final season of Parks & Recreation?

She did not.

Lawless’ character of Diane, was introduced to be the third (and ideally the final) wife fo breakout character, Ron Swanson.

While at first it appeared that she would be at least a recurring character, along the lines of Ron’s (actor Nick Offerman) second and real life wife Tammy Two (Megan Mullally) Lawless appeared in only six episodes, and was only a major portion of three of those. For reasons that are unclear, Lawless’s Diane moved from the foreground to the background, and then became an “unseen character” although narrative made it clear that she supposed to be alive and part of Ron’s daily life away from work.

Lawless was completely absent from the final, truncated, season of Parks and Recreation, although again she was spoken of by Swanson and also mentioned by other characters. It’s never been made clear why this occurred and things seem to ended with Lawless and the production on a sour note as the final three shows of the series bring back nearly all of the supporting characters who were still alive with the notable exceptions of Mark Brendanawicz and Lawless. She also seems to avoid discussions of her time on the program even though it was one of her “higher profile” roles on American television.