‘Bridgerton’ Creator Shonda Rhimes “Shocked” By Fans’ Reaction to Regé-Jean Page’s Exit: “We Didn’t Even Kill Him!”

Shonda Rhimes is giving her own take on Regé-Jean Page‘s exit from Bridgerton. Not long after the news broke earlier this month, outraged fans threatened to boycott the series without their beloved Duke of Hastings, but in a new interview with Vanity Fair, Rhimes said she doesn’t know what all the fuss is about.  “I was really shocked,” she admitted. “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!”

Page, who played the dashing Simon on Season 1 of the Netflix hit, won’t be returning when the steamy period romance debuts Season 2, but Rhimes insists that it’s all for the best, despite the fan backlash, especially because it means the story stays true to the book series by author Julia Quinn.

“[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,” she said. “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!”

Rhimes’ longtime collaborator and Bridgerton producer Betsy Beers added that Page is both “a wonderful actor and a terrific guy,” and that it was “delightful” to see how invested fans were in his character. Still, both Beers and Rhimes are at peace with letting him go ahead of Season 2. “He’s amazing, but that’s our job and something that Betsy and I have been doing since—well, God, has it been 20 years now?—is finding guys,” Rhimes said. “I mean, hopefully ladies too, but finding men that our audiences find devastatingly attractive and they become incredibly overly attached to, and they get enraged about when we move them about in any way.”

Despite reports that Page denied an offer to guest star on Bridgerton for $50,000 per episode, Rhimes said she struck a “one-season deal” with the actor at the start of Season 1. “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,” she said. She later clarified to Vanity Fair that Page was invited to return for cameos in Season 2. “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,” she explained.

Even though fans have had a difficult time saying goodbye to the Duke, they have plenty more to look forward to. Netflix renewed Bridgerton for Seasons 3 and 4 this morning, and production on Season 2 — which is set to star Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton — is currently underway.

Head to the Vanity Fair website to read the full interview with Rhimes and Beers.

Stream Bridgerton on Netflix