The Good Wife’s courageous and astute writers sprung a major surprise on the show’s devoted viewers on Sunday night.

When Josh Charles’ character, attorney Will Gardner — a sometime love interest for Julianna Margulies’ leading lady Alicia Florrick — was shot and killed in a courtroom by one of his clients (Hunter Parrish, who might want to stay away from any Alicia/Will shippers for the time being), fans of the hit series were left reeling.

Charles received an email shortly after the show aired from an excited realtor who had recently sold an apartment in his building. “So sorry to hear this news,” it said. “I was so devastated by the episode. Does this mean you’re moving back to L.A.? ” The actor replied nicely, implying that she was being a little too aggressive.

While the unexpected twist was kept under wraps and caught viewers off guard, it had been planned since last spring. “Josh Charles approached us almost a year ago about wanting to leave the series,” Michelle and Robert King remarked. Charles was planning to quit the program at the conclusion of the fourth season, when his contract expired. The actor stated that he was ready to move on after four years as the role.

Michelle and Robert King, the creators and showrunners of Wife, have sent a message to fans explaining their decision.

“We, like you, mourn the loss of Will Gardner. And while Will is gone, our beloved Josh Charles is very much alive and remains an integral part of our family,” they wrote in a statement on the official Good Wife Twitter account.

“The Good Wife, at its heart, is the ‘Education of Alicia Florrick.’ To us, there always was a tragedy at the center of Will and Alicia’s relationship: the tragedy of bad timing,” they continued. “And when faced with the gut punch of Josh’s decision, made over a year ago, to move on to other creative endeavors, we had a major choice to make.”

Julianna Margulies, who plays Gardner, requested that he be kept on a little longer so that his character could be appropriately written out. The Kings said they took advantage of the chance to upend Alicia Florrick’s (Margulies) life.

The Kings stated, “She was instrumental in convincing Josh to stay for a fifth season.” With a new short-term agreement, Charles agreed to continue on for another season. That allowed the show’s writers time to frame his leaving as one of the year’s big storyline surprises. The whole primary Good Wife ensemble had been told of Charles’ impending departure at the end of last season, so they knew coming into Season 5 that it would be their final season with him. The Kings stated, “Their reaction was understanding. It’s a very collegial and professional cast, and they understand an actor leaving because he wants to challenge himself. It helped that Josh was directing two episodes this season, and one of the episodes we specifically arranged for after he left the show so the band-aid wouldn’t be completely ripped off.”

The Kings stated that they had to choose between doing something severe with Charles’ character (as they did last night) or “send him off to Seattle” and letting him fade away from Alicia’s life. “There was something in the passion that Will and Alicia shared that made distance a meager hurdle,” they explained. Death, on the other hand, “speaks to the truth and tragedy of bad timing” and gives Alicia and the program new direction.

“Finally, we chose the tragic route for Will’s send-off for personal reasons. We’ve all experienced the sudden death of a loved one in our lives,” the creators explained in their letter. “It’s terrifying how a perfectly normal and sunny day can suddenly explode with tragedy. Television, in our opinion, doesn’t deal with this enough: the irredeemability of death. Your last time with the loved one will always remain your last time. The Good Wife is a show about human behavior and emotion, and death, as sad and unfair as it can be, is a part of the human experience that we want to share.”