Why was actor William Sadler replaced on Blue Bloods?

Armin Janko has had a complicated history on Blue Bloods. The character, who is the father of Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray), was introduced as a successful and cagey financial advisor. All seemed until it was discovered that Armin was running a massive Ponzi scheme, and subsequently cost his family everything.

Needless to say, Armin and Eddie have had a strained dynamic ever since. To further complicate matters, there have been two different actors who have played the former over the course of the show: William Sadler and Michael Cullen. It was a jarring recasting for fans, and many wondered why Sadler was replaced in 2019.

Which actor got replaced on Blue Bloods?

Firstly, there was no bad blood between Sadler and the rest of the Blue Bloods team. He’s been one of the most respected character actors of the last three decades, with notable appearances in films like Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and Iron Man 3 (2013). He also starred alongside Blue Bloods alum Tom Selleck in the Jesse Stone movies.

Sadler was ultimately recast due to scheduling. According to Monsters and Critics, the actor was simply busy with other projects, and would not have been able to carry the workload of the Armin character moving forward. His IMDb resume supports this. In 2020 alone, Sadler appeared in the the horror reboot The Grudge and the sequel Bill & Ted Face the Music.

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Michael Cullen has taken over as Armin and has done a good job of making the character his own. He’s been given a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of the dynamic between Armin and Eddie, and it’s fleshed out the character in ways that we didn’t see when Sadler was in the mix.

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