Shonda Rhimes on Regé-Jean Page’s Exit from Bridgerton: We Didn't Even Kill Him!
The extent to which fans mourned Regé-Jean Page's departure from #Bridgerton took Shonda Rhimes herself by surprise: “We didn’t even kill him!” https://t.co/jcvVVyAAOO
- VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) April 13, 2021
shonda is an executive producer on the show. in an interview to variety she talked about the fans being upset with the actor not returning for the second season:
- I was really shocked [by the fan reaction], because usually that happens when I’ve killed off somebody that’s been around for a while. Like, we didn’t kill him, he’s still alive! [Regé-Jean] is a powerful, amazing actor and that meant we did our job-every season, our job is finding the right people and putting together this incredible, world-shifting romance. I don’t know that I expected this much of an explosion, given that every book [in the Bridgerton series] is a different romance. What would be the ever-after of this combo? I mean, really: What would Regé-Jean do, you know what I mean? We gave them their happily ever after! And now we have this next couple coming. And so yeah, I was like, whoa!
- We made a one-season deal with him at the beginning of season one. That was the plan: come and do one season as the duke. Anything else that was extra and wasn’t really the plan when we started wasn’t the plan when we finished. So there’s a lot of fantastically interesting talk that’s been going on, mainly cause I think people are having a hard time letting go.
Shonda later clarified to variety that Page was invited to return for season two cameos, along with a few other season one characters outside the Bridgerton family.
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