All American stunned fans earlier this month by killing off the heart of the show.
During All American Season 5 Episode 11, Billy (Taye Diggs) died while trying to save his students following a bus crash.
On All American Season 5 Episode 12, those closest to Billy during his life said their last goodbyes.
However, Nkechi Okoro Carroll, the showrunner of The CW drama, revealed that we could see Taye Diggs back on-screen down the line.
“I have ongoing conversations with all of my cast every season, so there’s nothing that ever comes out of the blue,” Carroll said in a new interview with The Wrap following Billy’s funeral episode this week.
“We never had any delusions that we’d be able to hold onto Taye for 12 seasons or anything like that.”
“I was just like, ‘Whenever the time comes where it feels like the character has served his purpose, or Taye feels like he’s done what he’s come here to do, let’s have a conversation and let’s make sure we’re on the same page,'” she continued.
Carroll also shared with The Wrap that Diggs is open to returning if the series needs him.
Given the events of All American Season 5, it would have to be a flashback, a dream sequence, or some other creative way to bring someone back from the dead.
The showrunner went on to speak about the decision to kill off Billy.
“There’s no version of Billy that is leaving his kids and family,” she said.
“There was no version of the story that made sense where he’s taking a coaching job and didn’t take Laura (Monét Mazur) with him at a minimum,”
“Staying alive and not being present in his family’s life, that’s just not who the character was. He would have to leave-leave,” Carroll added.
“Then I had the lovely task of telling the rest of the cast what the storyline was going to be for Season 5 and crying in Zooms with all of them as we went through the stories.”
Despite the continued uncertainty about what The CW will look like next season, the young-skewing network handed out an early renewal for All American Season 6 earlier this year.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.