Will Naya Be Back?

Are we really saying goodbye to Santana Lopez? The answer is a hard "maybe." Naya Rivera's recent drama on the set of Glee has caused rumors to swirl about her status on the Fox musical dramedy. Now that Season 5 of Glee is coming to an end, we're left wondering if Naya will be returning to the show come Season 6.

Though Fox has confirmed that Rivera is still under contract with Glee , Santana is officially removed from the Season 5 finale airing on May 13. Why? Well, that depends on who you ask. According to reports, River and her co-star Lea Michele fought on the set of Glee when Rivera became annoyed that Michele had stepped away from the production to deal with personal matters. Allegedly, Rivera told producers about Michele's "unprofessional" behavior, which led to Michele becoming irritated with her co-star. Now that Rivera is being written out of the finale, people are speculating that Michele is the reason why. However, a source at Glee told E! that it simply isn't the case:

[Naya] isn't fired and her not being in the finale has nothing to do with Lea...I don't know where these stories are coming from, but they are not true.

Though Rivera, and by proxy Santana, will not be appearing in the finale, she did appear in the episode just prior to it, the Chris Colfer-penned episode "Old Dogs, New Tricks." Santana certainly doesn't seem like she's going anywhere in the latest episode of Glee. In fact, the episode seems to hint that Santana may have a career in public relations — in Tuesday's episode, she helps fix Rachel's Broadway "diva image" so she doesn't get fired from Funny Girl. (Oh the irony.) Could the finale — called "The Untitled Rachel Berry Project" — simply not need Santana's presence, hence her being written out? It seems unlikely that the drama on set and Santana's absence aren't connected, but with a cast as large as Glee's, I suppose that it is a possibility.

Right now we can only speculate as to Rivera's status on Season 6, but I, for one, hope that she does have a role. Santana's gone through some pretty amazing changes throughout the five seasons of the show, and it would be disappointing to fans to send Santana off without a logical explanation for her absence. Let's hope that the cast and crew of Glee see it the same way.