One of the best episodes of Grey’s Anatomy is the second half of the two-part bombing episode, “As We Know It,” which aired following Super Bowl XL in 2006. The episode featured Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) finally get her hand back after shoving it in a man’s torso to keep a bomb from going off. She hands it over to bomb defuser Dylan Young (Kyle Chandler), and it explodes in his hands as he walks out of the OR. Even though he was just in a two-part episode, Kyle made an impression on fans and Shonda Rhimes, 47.
While discussing the episode with Entertainment Weekly with Ellen and the episode’s director, Peter Horton, Shonda admitted that Kyle actually begged her not to kill his character off and a part of her wished she hadn’t had to.
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“He would pitch me ideas on how Dylan, his character, could maybe not explode, and I would show him the line in the script that said, ‘Dylan explodes,'” Shonda said. “That’s literally all it said. He was written to explode. But I did not expect to have Kyle Chandler. I didn’t want to explode him.”
We feel you, Shonda. Kyle is a national treasure. After the incredible episode, Kyle’s career really took off. He was cast as Dillon Panthers coach Eric Taylor on the beloved series Friday Night Lights.
If Shonda had decided not to kill off Dylan and kept him on the show, that would have changed everything. Would he have ever been cast as Eric on FNL? Maybe, maybe not. While we loved Kyle and his instant chemistry with Meredith on Grey’s Anatomy, Kyle was born to play Eric Taylor. So we’re glad Shonda kept the script as it was originally written.
HollywoodLifers, did you love Kyle Chandler’s character? Let us know!