Archie Panjabi to Exit The Good Wife, Anchor New Drama Series

The Good Wife is set to lose another major player.

Following Josh Charles' decision to exit the series as Will Gardner last year, The Hollywood Reporter now confirms that Archie Panjabi will say goodbye at the conclusion of The Good Wife Season 6.

The Emmy-winning actress has signed a development/holding deal with 20th Century Fox Television and will star in a drama pilot for the studio in the spring.

"Archie is an Emmy Award-winning dramatic actress, and rightly so. Her work on The Good Wife has been extraordinary, and the time has come for her to star in a project of her own," said 20th executive vice president of casting Sharon Klein via statement. "We couldn't be happier that it will be with us."

Adds showrunners Robert and Michelle King:

"Archie is an amazing actress who helped build Kalinda from the ground up as an enigmatic, powerful and sexy character. It's been a pleasure to write for her, and we'll be sad to see her go; but we still have her for the rest of season six, so let's not exhaust our goodbyes yet. We look forward to meeting all the wonderful new characters Archie brings to the screen.

"But either way, we're keeping the boots."

Panjabi has played legal investigator Kalinda Sharma since The Good Wife premiere.

Her contract runs out at the end of Season 6 and her role has been a bit marginalized since her friendship with Alicia mostly ended and since Alicia and Cary set out to start their new firm.

Incredibly, she has not shared a scene with Julianna Margulies as Alicia since The Good Wife Season 4.

It's unclear how the Kings will write Panjabi out, but they at least have plenty of time to come up with an exit worthy of her work.