Glee's Ryan Murphy: None of the Actors Were Fired -- Or Found Out They Were Fired on Twitter

Ryan Murphy is now saying that the reason he said Glee actors Chris Colfer, Lea Michele and Cory Monteith would not be back for Season 4 was because he was actively working on a New York-set spin-off for their characters.

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In an interview with Deadline posted Thursday, Murphy says the actors in fact were not only onboard with the idea of a spin-off, they were also "involved in the process for three to four months to the point where we were even talking about cities and relocations..."

What about Colfer saying he didn't know that he'd essentially been fired off the show until he found out on Twitter? Murphy says it is "absolutely 100 percent not true. None of them were fired." Later in the interview, Murphy added, "When I say they're seniors and they're not coming back to the show, what I did not say is they're not coming back to the show because there will be another show."

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"They all knew what was happening, they all had approved it, they all said they wanted to do [the spin-off]," he said. They did have different caveats, including not wanted to move across country. "I feel sensitive about that," Murphy said. "So then what happened was it blew up and a lot of articles were written about it. Some people were writing they're not on the show so that means they must be fired. Well, no. that was 100 percent incorrect."

Murphy now says plans for a spin-off are being tabled. "That's where we are today," he said. "Maybe we'll talk about that in April or May, but for now, let's just concentrate on making Season 3 the best that we can do... As of now, I can tell you I'm not working on [a spin-off.]"

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In the meantime, Murphy says he's learned to "monitor what I say."

"Before, I didn't do that. My bad. Stupid."