Well, you can't say he didn't warn you.

In June, Ryan Murphy told Ryan Seacrest that the "Glee" stars entering their senior year at McKinley High would graduate from the show at the end season, instantly stirring massive buzz given that three of the show's biggest names -- Lea Michele, Chris Colfer and Cory Monteith -- would be upperclassmen this coming year.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Murphy made clear that there would be no prep years or college plot lines.

Those stars -- Michele, Colfer and Monteith -- are "not going to be back at all for Season 4," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "You can keep them on the show for six years and people will criticize you for not being realistic, or you can be really true to life and say when they started the show they were very clearly sophomores and they should graduate at the end of their senior year."

Those comments closely matched what he told Seacrest, when he said, "The thing that I wanted to do and the cast wanted to do, we didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for 8 years. We really wanted it to be true to that experience. We thought it would be really cool if we were true to the timeline."

Murphy has aimed to add new stars to the show each year, with the second season bringing aboard breakout stars Darren Criss and Chord Overstreet, among others. Fans erupted in anger when they found out that, while Criss was made a series regular for the third season, Overstreet would apparently not be included in the show very much going forward. Soon after, a seeming reversal of the decision was announced, with Overstreet publicly extended the opportunity to continue on as a guest, with a series regular position possibly being attained as early as midseason.

Murphy is also adding cast members through the summer reality show, "The Glee Project."

Here's the one drawback with TV series about kids: they grow up.
Unless a showrunner can suspend the laws of time and begin writing seasons that address just days or weeks, they eventually face a decision as to how they'll adapt their shows to older stars. Will they follow them from high school to new stages in life? Or bring in new characters? Perhaps both?
According to "Glee" showrunner Ryan Murphy, he's leaning toward doing the latter.
He confirmed to Ryan Seacrest that he's looking to move the current cast on from high school, with them graduating at the end of the third season, and bringing in fresh talent to the show -- which is the entire function of the new Oxygen Network show, "The Glee Project."
"That is true. I don't think of it in terms of eliminating or replacing. Because I think the thing about this cast is people love them and they are incredibly talented. They've left sort of an indelible mark," Murphy told Seacrest on his radio show. "The thing that I wanted to do and the cast wanted to do, we didn't want to have a show where they were in high school for 8 years. We really wanted it to be true to that experience. We thought it would be really cool if we were true to the timeline."
That would mean seeing Lea Michele's Rachel Berry, the show's leading character, graduate, amongst many others. Murphy said that, with two adults to rely on, he's confident of being able to make new stars.
"We've got Matt Morrison and Jane Lynch who will stay and be the male and female lynchpins of the series, but I think the fun thing about the show is it's a celebration of youth and talent and I think that just like with the original cast, I think finding those young unknown people and giving them an opportunity to break into the business and become stars is a really fun and exciting thing and is the spirit of the series."