Det verkar ha varit en kombination av tre faktorer:
Weir-karaktären hade vuxit bortom vad producenterna ursprungligen hade tänkt
Författarna visste inte hur man behöll det
Torri Higginson ville inte fortsätta i en minskad roll
Elizabeth Weir var aldrig avsett att vara en huvudperson hon var avsedd att vara stödpersonalen, särskilt för att vara som SG-1 s General Hammond. Men hon verkar ha varit en personlig favorit för Atlantis "medskapare Brad Wright.
Joseph Mallozzi, den verkställande producenten av Atlantis som började under säsong 2, sa i en Januari 2008 bloggpost som Wright var en av de stora orsakerna Weir blev så stor av en karaktär som hon gjorde (betona min):
Weir’s role was originally envisioned as a parallel to the Hammond role on SG-1. And so, unlike the team, it wasn't intended that she head off-world every episode. Like it or not, the character of Weir was intended to play a supporting role to that of the team. Still – while Brad was running Atlantis, he was very supportive and protective of the character, working hard to make sure she got her fair share of stories, and to suggest otherwise is not only disingenuous, but a slap in the face to a guy who was the driving force behind episodes like "Before I Sleep", "The Real World", and "The Long Goodbye".
Higginson har trots det varit ganska tydligt att hon inte var så nöjd med kvaliteten på skrivningen som hon fick. Enligt en partiell utskrift av en livechat 2008 :
Torri was always trying to bring more to Weir during those pauses. She was frustrated with how Weir was being written; she wasn't being active, instead was passive, so how could she be a leader.
Och i en intervju med GateWorld.net gjorde hon sa:
I think that my character -- we never found a place for her. I think everybody can take a bit of responsibility for that, obviously myself included. So yeah, I imagine that was it. They thought "here's this woman character that we're not really able to explore to her full right."
So many of the episodes I was just there in the background, which wasn't challenging for me. And I think they're going "Why are we paying this chick when she's only in for a couple of scenes?" You know what I mean? It made a lot of sense, I thought. That's how I hypothesize it. It makes a lot of sense for me.
Så ett beslut kom ner efter säsong 3, som sammanfaller med Wrights egen roll i serien som minskar, för att minska Weirs karaktär dramatiskt. Ursprungligen ville producenterna göra Weir till en återkommande karaktär, men Higginson valde istället att lämna showen. I livechat kopplade jag till ovan, Higginson återkallade historien:
But I found out, because I kept going to them, I kept going up to them saying 'I have a feeling my character, you’re not doing anything with me, and you guys have me for six years and I don't want to, you know, be here not doing anything. Let me know what's going on.' And they kept saying "no, no, no, it's great. We love you. We love you. Things can be great.' And I said 'well, if that’s the case, can we do something with her' and they kept reassuring me that nothing - and the very last day of filming season three, as I finished filming the last scene on the last day I was called up to the office and was told that my character was going to become recurring if I chose to be. So, I thought that was not very, um, dignified, way to deal with it, and I was a bit surprised. So I was— so my reaction was one of yeah, I was a little bit surprised. I was a little bit upset by how it was dealt with. But I wasn't upset at the decision because I understood it. I kept going to them saying 'I get, I get what's going to happen, just give me some notice so I can pack my apartment and move back to L.A. Really. So I wasn't upset with the decision. I was upset with how it was handled."