The final season of Parks and Rec is going to be over before we know it, and what better way to send-off all of our favorite characters than by bringing back those that have left us. We already know that Chris Traeger and Ann Perkins are set to return sometime during Season 7 of Parks and Rec to visit Leslie, Ron, Ben, and everyone else, but there is one looming absence that we have to acknowledge. Will Mark Brendanawicz return to Parks and Rec before the series ends?
Mark seems like an old memory, really. He was on the show in the first two seasons, and disappeared almost as quietly as he came. In Season 2, Mark considered proposing to Ann, but ultimately didn't because Ann wanted to dump him... they weren't on the same page, obviously. Once the government shut down, Mark was offered a private sector job which caused him to leave the Parks Department, and never look back.
So will he come back in a small cameo at some point in the final episodes? Unfortunately, Mark is not going to be back in the final season of the series, despite how incredible it would be if he was. In an interview from April 2014 with ScreenCrush, Paul Schneider, the actor who portrays Mark, said, "I'm not interested in going back," which is a tough pill to swallow for major fans of the show, but maybe he's just messing with us, right?
Wrong. In a press tour in Jan. 2015, creator Mike Schur spoke about Mark's possible return and said, "You're not going to see him, no. There's no plan to have him back," again, a stab in the heart. Why won't the show bring Mark back? Well, if Schneider has no interest in returning to the role, the producers of the show probably don't see a point in bringing back a character that some people might feel indifferent about at this point. Now, if we were talking a 'Lil Sebastian return... that's an entirely different story. That needs to happen.
So, no, Mark Brendanawicz won't be returning to our Pawnee lives in the final episodes of Parks and Recreation, which is sad, but he's probably too busy in the "private sector" anyway. Also, didn't he move into the construction side of planning? I'm not trying to get too fan fiction here, but isn't there a wild chance that he and Ron are either working together or business enemies now that they're both in private sector construction? I'm just saying, if Schneider changes his mind, the storyline practically writes itself.
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