Shonda Rhimes is the most dangerous woman in America. Or, fictional TV America, at least. The showrunner has killed of so many characters during her many incredible years working on programs like Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder. However, there's one character she regrets killing, and it's someone who appeared very briefly on Grey's.
In an oral history over on Entertainment Weekly, the producer, alongside director Peter Horton and Ellen Pompeo, broke down a particularly memorable 2006 episode featuring a man who had a bomb stuck in his torso. In the end, the bomb explodes, killing defuser Dylan Young, played by a (relatively unknown) Kyle Chandler.
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"I remember thinking Kyle Chandler was amazing," Pompeo said. "I wasn’t surprised his career really took off after that because he was so natural."
In fact, it was difficult for Shimes to watch Chandler go — especially since he really wanted to stay.
"He would pitch me ideas on how Dylan, his character, could maybe not explode," she told Entertainment Weekly. "I would show him the line in the script that said, 'Dylan explodes.' That’s literally all it said. He was written to explode."
Turns out, this is something she kind of regrets.
"I did not expect to have Kyle Chandler," Rhimes admitted. "I didn’t want to explode him."
But, of course, they had to. Luckily, Chandler went on to become the star of Friday Night Lights (he played coach Eric Taylor), and his Grey's Anatomy episode went on to be one of the most iconic in the series.
"It was the highlight of Grey’s Anatomy in all of its 12 years," Horton revealed to EW. "It was a special moment when it all came together in just the right way."
Still, it's hard not to picture what could have been if Chandler stayed on as a regular, and changed Grey's history as we know it. Then again, doesn't that happen every episode?