Shonda Rhimes was “shocked” by the outrage from fans after it was revealed that Regé-Jean Page will not return to Bridgerton.

In a new interview with Vanity Fair, the showrunner, whose production firm Shondaland is behind Bridgerton, was queried about Page’s departure — and the subsequent “outpouring of grief.”

“I was really shocked, 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,” the 51-year-old television mogul told Vanity Fair on Tuesday. “[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 continued, “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!’”

Netflix and Shondaland announced in early April that Regé-Jean Page, the popular star of Bridgerton’s first season who played the Duke of Hastings, would not be returning for season two. The news sparked widespread anger and dismay on the internet.

Netflix and Shondaland confirmed Page’s departure on April 2 with a letter from Lady Whistledown herself. “Dear Readers, while all eyes turn to Lord Anthony Bridgerton’s quest to find a Viscountess, we bid adieu to Regé-Jean Page, who so triumphantly played the Duke of Hastings,” the Instagram post said.

Although, according to Vanity Fair, Rhimes explained that it had always been the plan to have Page star for just one season as the Duke of Hastings, she “later clarified that Page was invited to return for season two cameos, along with a few other season one characters outside the Bridgerton family.”

It’s Rhimes’ “job” to identify men who “audiences find devastatingly attractive” and who they eventually “become incredibly overly attached to and get enraged about when we move them around in any way,” she said.

The show’s second season was always meant to shift away from Daphne Bridgerton and the Duke’s love story and focus on other characters, such as Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton.

Fans reacted with rage that was quick and strong. Even Kim Kardashian expressed her sadness at the actor’s departure, but Rhimes would want to stress out that each Julia Quinn Bridgerton novel is intended to focus on a different member of the British family.

Bridgerton, based on Julia Quinn’s eponymous series of novels, premiered on Netflix in December 2020 and has been renewed for three more seasons, bringing the total number of scheduled series to four.

Page, 31, rose to prominence after starring in the critically praised Netflix series as Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. On April 2, however, the British actor announced that he would be departing the show after only one season.

Following an announcement on the show’s respective social media accounts, he commented on Instagram, “The ride of a lifetime. It’s been an absolute pleasure and a privilege to be your Duke. Joining this family — not just on screen, but off screen too. Our incredibly creative and generous cast, crew, outstanding fans — it’s all been beyond anything I could have imagined. The love is real and will just keep growing.”

Viewers can expect future seasons to follow Julia Quinn’s romance novels, each concentrating on a new love story, given the book-per-season format of seasons one and two. Rhimes, on the other hand, is confident in her capacity to discover more heartthrobs.

“He’s amazing, but that’s our job and something that Betsy [Beers, executive producer] and I have been doing since—well, God, has it been 20 years now?—is finding guys,” she 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.”