Chase Stokes, Rudy Pankow Had ‘Progression of Distance’ After OBX Exit

Chase Stokes made a rare comment about the way JJ’s death on Outer Banks affected his bond with now-former costar Rudy Pankow.

During the Friday, January 24, episode of SiriusXM Hits 1 The Morning Mash Up, Stokes, 32, addressed Pankow’s shocking exit, saying, “When you spend five years with somebody doing a show like this, there’s that lifelong bond. So none of that changes and nobody has any issues with any of that.”

Stokes acknowledged that not filming with Pankow, 26, created a shift.

“It’s just one of those things as work takes you to different places and takes you to different people, there’s that natural progression of distance,” he added. “But we always find our way back to one another.”

Earlier in the episode, Stokes called Madison Bailey and Jonathan Daviss some of his closest friends from the cast.

“When you’re in a town like Charleston, South Carolina, and you have the success of the show, you have to be a little bit more strategic and careful about how you operate in society,” he explained. “Just having that level of success with a group of people, you have this instant bond and a lifelong one at that. I was literally at dinner with Madison Bailey and Jonathan Daviss two nights ago.”

Stokes continued: “I was in L.A. for 48 hours. They’re like, ‘We’re coming to find you.’ I was like, ‘I don’t wanna get out of bed.’ They’re like, ‘Don’t care, get outta bed.’ It’s family.”

The insight into the Outer Banks cast’s dynamic comes after season 4 threw fans for a loop when Pankow’s character, JJ Maybank, was killed off in a shocking twist. The hit Netflix series, which debuted in 2020, introduced the fictional found family between John B (Stokes), Sarah (Madelyn Cline), Kiara (Bailey), Pope (Daviss), JJ (Rudy Pankow) and Cleo (Carlacia Grant).

After JJ’s death sparked backlash, Outer Banks creators Josh Pate, Jonas Pate and Shannon Burke subsequently tried to explain their vision.

“The overarching plan was to begin with just some kids who wanted to have a good time all the time, and take them on a whole journey,” Burke told Deadline in November 2024. “One of them was going to end up dying, and pretty early on, we knew that was going to be JJ, he’s the most reckless. He is also the most beloved and, in one way, the most sacrificing and the most risk-taking. And this was going to be JJ’s year.”

He continued: “The kids, they’re getting older. We wanted to begin in a place of innocence and then go to a place that at least one point to go is really dark for them, and then have them come out of it. That’s the overarching plan for the show. It was always JJ that was going to be, we just weren’t sure how we were going to play it.”

Viewers quickly suspected that the departure was a result of Pankow looking to exit the series amid rumors of distance between the main cast. Pankow, however, weighed in on the writers’ room surprising him with the narrative shake-up.

“When I first found out JJ was gonna risk it all and not make it, I understood it. And the risks got bigger and bigger, and the stakes got higher and higher,” he explained to Netflix’s Tudum that same month. “His death really does set up the future of OBX with the question, what is worth it? And when someone that close to you is gone, how do you navigate that?”

Netflix has renewed Outer Banks for a fifth and final season.