SPOILER WARNING…

Episode 8 of the supernatural drama’s third series, which aired on BBC Three last night, saw vampire Mitchell (Aidan Turner) killed by werewolf housemate George (Russell Tovey).

Speaking to SFX about Aidan Turner’s departure, he commented: “We always knew that we didn’t own Aidan Turner, we had just borrowed him from films. We always knew at some point he was going to go off and become a multi-million pound movie star. Consequently we weren’t in the least surprised when he got cast in The Hobbit. We were just delighted and felt we were incredibly lucky to have had him as long as we had.”

He continued: “Ultimately this guy’s got movie star written all over him and there’s only so long you can have him in an ensemble of three, which is not to denigrate our great cast. His ascendancy is inevitable.”

He added: “Aidan was always going to become a movie star, whether that was in The Hobbit or something else.”

Also starring Martin Freeman (Sherlock), Richard Armitage (Spooks) and Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek), The Hobbit: Part 1 will be released in 2012. Principal photography is scheduled to begin later this month.