'Mindy Project' Adds A Love Interest In Season 5

Another name was just added to the growing list of "potential romances" for Season 5 Mindy Lahiri. According to The Hollywood Reporter, English actor Jack Davenport will guest star as Mindy Lahiri's love interest on The Mindy Project Season 5. He'll join Mindy's ex, Danny (Chris Messina), her co-worker Jody (Garret Dillahunt), as well as other romantic interests from Mindy's past including Bill Hader, Anders Holm, and B.J. Novak. Looks like this season will prove to be one hell of a love roller coaster for Mindy. Considering this news comes after we all learned that Danny will be repositioned into a guest star role in Season 5 (meaning Danny and Mindy might not be end-game, sorry guys), there's room to wonder: Will The Mindy Project return back to its romantic comedy ways? That's where it all began, after all, with Mindy as the atypical center of her own atypical rom-com. No hate to the Danny and Mindy love story, but if The Mindy Project settles back into its smart subversion of the romance genre like it did in Seasons 1 and 2, things could start to get pretty interesting.

But, back to the newest love interest for a sec: Davenport will play Leland Breakfast, an English stage actor who's also known as the "bad boy of the West End." Leland finds himself in New York City because he's the lead in a one-man show, and during his visit, he somehow meets (and ends up falling for) Mindy. Sounds like a rom com fairytale doesn't it? Like, somewhat of a Notting Hill story, but reversed? Either way, it's a far cry from the kind of conflict we saw in Seasons 3 and 4.

After deciding to play out the "will-they-won't-they" plot of many a sitcom pairing, Danny and Mindy did the will (see: serious relationship and child bearing) and the won't (see: last season.) The honeymoon period, unfortunately, didn't last long, as the couple was given some heavy realistic problems to sort though: Problems that started to put a damper on Mindy's personality and Mindy the show. As the sitcom tried to figure out a place to land, it oscillated between silly and serious, and while there were moments of clarity and candidness about relationships, it seemed to lose most of what made watching it so fun in the first place.

It looks like Season 5 will put Mindy back at square one, where she was before Danny. She's changed because of their relationship, sure, and now that she has a son, her dating life will certainly be different as well — but there's one thing that will always remain: Mindy. She's selfish and flawed and sometimes hard to love, but this is her story. Thankfully, by the looks of what's happening with Season 5, it's far from over.

The upcoming fifth season will premiere on Hulu October 4.

Images: Hulu; Giphy (2)