JJ’s shocking death on Outer Banks inspired fan speculation about what led to the controversial decision — including cast feud rumors and more. During the second part of season 4, which premiered in November 2024, viewers were in for a surprise when a trip to track down treasure in Morocco led to one of the Pogues dying. John B ( Chase Stokes ), Sarah ( Madelyn Cline ), Kiara ( Madison Bailey ), Pope ( Jonathan Daviss ) and Cleo ( Carlacia Grant ) buried JJ ( Rudy Pankow ) after his biological father, Chandler Groff ( J.
Anthony Crane ), stabbed him. The hit Netflix series, which premiered in 2020, originally followed a group of teenagers in a coastal town in North Carolina, one sharply dived by wealthy and working-class factions. Outer Banks started as a story about friendship , which made many assume that all of the main characters were safe.
Creators Shannon Burke, Josh Pate and Jonas Pate , however, revealed they always planned to kill the fan-favorite character off. “We were pretty sure early on that this was where it was going. We thought that one of the Pogues would die almost in the very beginning in season 1, and we were pretty sure it was going to be JJ,” Burke told Cosmopolitan in November 2024.
“We just weren’t sure when we were going to play that card. We knew this would be JJ’s season — this is JJ’s story. And we realized pretty early on, like, ‘OK, we’re going to play this card now.
'” T he decision didn’t sit well with most fans and Ou.
