The Actual Cause Trendy Household Killed Off a Character

The massive Trendy Household dying lastly arrived, and the dearly departed character’s demise will certainly be felt by each department of Trendy Household‘s Pritchetts, Dunphys and Tuckers. Spoilers comply with.

Trendy Household killed off DeDe Pritchett, performed by Shelley Lengthy, the mom of Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), and ex-wife to Jay (Ed O’Neill). Co-creator Steve Levitan advised The Hollywood Reporter the writers did not need to simply kill a personality to kill them.

“We collect [with the writers] in the beginning of the season and speak in regards to the huge arcs and issues that we need to have occur — the milestone moments. It occurred to us that dying is a huge a part of the household expertise and whereas Phil had misplaced his mom in a earlier episode, we have by no means seen your entire household need to take care of such a loss. It appeared like an attention-grabbing factor to have occur,” Levitan stated.

The character died in her sleep. The writers acquired to DeDe due to her ties to each a part of the prolonged household.

“She’s straight concerned with three of our characters and she or he touched everyone’s life in some attention-grabbing approach. It appeared like the fitting character to place everyone via one thing. She appeared like proper character as a result of she so straight impacts so a lot of our characters,” Levitan stated.

Cheers veteran Lengthy was advised in regards to the character’s demise from casting director Jeff Greenberg, the 2 have identified one another since Cheers. Levitan advised EW he did not have a dialog along with her, however thought it was good Lengthy did comply with do the recording of the voicemail Claire listens to and did a 3-D scan for the DeDe dolls that haunted Gloria (Sofia Vergara).

“I feel she was okay with it, actually — we’re close to the top our run anyway. She cooperated, after all,” Levitan advised EW.

If Trendy Household does return for a season 11, which Levitan stated is trying seemingly, viewers might even see DeDe once more via flashbacks. “I feel something’s doable. It is nothing we have deliberate on doing, however you by no means know. They may uncover an previous video tape. Or it might actually simply be a flashback, nevertheless it’s not our intention at this level,” he stated.

The household will proceed to take care of the loss, particularly after they obtain the gadgets she left them. One of many gadgets? A tree along with her points infused within the roots.

Trendy Household airs Wednesdays, 9 p.m. on ABC.