Fifth guide — or a fifth wheel? Cress Williams was initially in the ‘Will and Grace’ cast

Will and Grace and Jack and Karen and … Cress?

Just about 25 after the “Will & Grace” pilot premiered on NBC, two of the show’s guide actors uncovered the script was initially published to have 5 most important characters.

On the debut episode of their recap podcast “Just Jack & Will,” actors Sean Hayes and Eric McCormack talked about what happened to the unnamed fifth mate.

“So there were 5 characters as regulars, and the fifth was my husband or wife in my small regulation firm,” mentioned McCormack, who played Will Truman, a gay lawyer in New York Town.

Hayes, who performed flamboyant buddy Jack MacFarland, described the character as “the reverse of Jack.”

“Straight man, I assume published likely as Jewish, and nonetheless in the conclude it was Cress Williams,” McCormack explained.

Williams, who at the time was a recurring solid member on the Fox sitcom “Living Solitary,” would go on to star in a assortment of other tv displays, including “ER,” “Hart of Dixie” and “Black Lightning.”

If he had remained on “Will & Grace,” he would have been the only Black character among the the show’s main forged.

But it by no means transpired because director James Burrows claimed there ended up much too numerous qualified prospects in the pilot and Williams’ character finished up currently being published out of the present. McCormack reported a related factor happened when his character was prepared out of the pilot for “The Jenny McCarthy Present.”

“I felt so horrible, it was nothing he did or didn’t do,” McCormack claimed. “It just didn’t fit what the exhibit was supposed to be.”

“Will & Grace” also starred Debra Messing as interior designer Grace Adler and Megan Mullally as Karen Walker, a rich socialite.

The demonstrate aired for 8 seasons from 1998 to 2006 and afterwards was rebooted from 2017 to 2020. Each individual of the four direct forged members gained an Emmy for their performances during the unique run.