Steve Howey‘s character has left High Potential viewers divided before his surprise departure in the season 2 finale.
Howey, 48, was introduced at the start of season 2 as the new captain of Major Crimes. As the characters on the show figured out if they could trust Wagner, so did the audience. His arc turned around in the second half of the season but he was then abruptly shot in the finale, which aired on Tuesday, April 7.
While Wagner’s exact fate remained unclear, the actor has been cast in upcoming seasons of Off Campus and Ransom Canyon, which hinted at a departure. Deadline confirmed that the season 2 finale marked the last episode as a series regular for Howey.
Howey initially wasn’t expected to return due to him signing a one-year deal. Wagner’s story has not been fully determined yet though and there is a chance Howey could come back as a guest star at the beginning of season 3 to wrap up his arc.
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Howey previously teased his arc on the show while speaking exclusively to Us Weekly in September 2025, saying, “Nick comes in and does ruffle some feathers. But his motives and his intentions are not to do that. He wants to help and we start seeing that in different episodes.”
He continued: “That was my fear and my concern. When you have such a lightning in the bottle strong dynamic of these characters, throwing in another character can potentially thrown that off. I’m still working on not doing that. This is going to evolve into something really cool. We don’t know about the chemistry with Nick and Morgan. Obviously there is [something]. But as he’s incrementally gaining more trust with the department, hopefully it gets better and better.”
Howey, for his part, was thrilled at the chance to join one of his favorite shows.
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“The first season was amazing. It is not your usual procedure. I love the insert shots and I love their style. But I have friends in real life that are police officers and are part of the sheriff’s department. So I talked to them and they definitely made fun of me because that’s what they do,” he told Us. “I’m taking my own leeway a little bit about who this guy is and that comes from the writers about who his family is and how they were in law enforcement and now in politics. So he has something to prove to the department and to himself. So it’s fun to work on it and see what comes out of it.”
The decision about Wagner’s future on the show will be made after a new showrunner is found. News broke in March that showrunner Todd Harthan exited the show to focus on the upcoming live-action adaptation of Christopher Paolini’s young adult [YA] book series The Inheritance Cycle. The adaptation — titled Eragon — is cocreated with Paolini and Harthan will serve as coshowrunner alongside Todd Helbing.
High Potential, meanwhile, has been renewed for a third season. All episodes are currently streaming on Hulu.
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