Will Fox’s The Passage change a major part of the story for the show?

Fox’s The Passage has been following the novel’s plot very closely but will the TV show divert from the source material to keep a particular character around?

Warning! Spoilers for Fox’s The Passage follow. You’ve been warned.

Fans who’ve been following The Passage lately know that the series is practically a shot-for-shot of Justin Cronin’s famous novel. There are some subtle differences between the two, but for the most part, the television adaptation is identical to the source material. That being said, the show is about to lose a major character if it’s expected to continue the original storyline.

The character we’re talking about is Brad Wolgast. Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays him on the Fox series but he’s set for a departure quite soon. Gosselaar’s character is days away from escaping the Project Noah compound with Amy (Saniyya Sidney)—and in the novel—that’s only a few months before Wolgast dies. He doesn’t die how you’d expect, it’s actually from the fallout of a nuclear explosion.

Rather than being mauled to death in a glorious fall, Brad Wolgast succumbs to radiation poisoning after nuclear fallout from the surrounding area affects him. Amy remains healthy thanks to her immunity to basically everything but her former caretaker does not—he perishes in wake of the Vampire Apocalypse.

What this means for the show is that Fox’s The Passage will probably ax Gosselaar within the next few episodes. There’s still a bit of time left in the fictional world but Brad and Amy’s journey together will end shortly after they escape Project Noah—and we know that’s coming soon.

Dr. Sykes (Caroline Chikezie) was ready to let them go in episode five “How You Gonna Outrun The End Of The World” but their plan didn’t work out. Now, however, Clark Richards (Vincent Piazza) is prepared to help them escape the facility as well. So with two people on the inside helping, it’s safe to say Brad, Amy, and Lila (Emmanuelle Chiriqui) will find an escape route out of the nightmare they’ve come to know.

The bad news is that leaving Project Noah will set forth in motion the events which lead to Brad Wolgast’s death on the series. Of course, there’s a chance Fox Entertainment will diverge from Cronin’s source material and save Brad from his untimely demise.

While the chances are very slim, keeping Gosselaar around is probably in the network’s best interests. Saniyya Sidney is excellent as the extremely talented Amy Bellafonte but the show needs someone with Gosselaar’s bravado for this pre-apocalypse drama. More characters can be thrown in to replace Brad Wolgast but the onscreen chemistry between Sidney and Gosselaar is one factor that’ll be difficult to replicate.

With those factors being noted, it’ll be interesting to see if Fox decides to drive a direct adaptation of The Passage all the way to the end or changes certain aspects to suit the show.

Do you think Fox will shy away from killing Brad Wolgast? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Passage airs Mondays on Fox. Episodes are uploaded to Hulu the following day. For more updates on Fox’s The Passage, follow us on the Hulu Watcher Twitter Account @HuluWatcherFS or on the Hulu Watcher Facebook Page.