The characters on CBS’ Under The Dome think they’ve tried every possible means of escaping their town-sized prison. They tried going under it, they tried blowing it up, and they even tried boring the dome to death with confusing magic butterfly stuff and directionless relationship drama. None of that worked, but there’s one tactic they didn’t try: just asking to leave the show. That’s how writer and executive producer Brian K. Vaughan was able to get out, at least.


According to The Hollywood Reporter, Vaughan decided to leave the show after planning out its second season with showrunner Neal Baer so he could focus more on his “graphic novel roots.” Vaughan, of course, is the creator of Saga, the critically acclaimed comic book series about animal people and bug people and robot people that Apple once pulled from iOS comic-reading apps for its graphic depiction of sex. Evidently, he’s more interested in that than keeping up with whatever the dome people are doing week to week, and it’s not particularly hard to blame him.

THR says Vaughan’s decision to leave was “amicable,” and it points out that he was specifically handpicked by Stephen King, the author of the Under The Dome novel, to help develop it into a series. Under The Dome will return on June 30 with an episode written by King himself, who will apparently also make a cameo appearance in the episode. That always goes well.