Modern Family will have a main character die this season: Who will it be?

Season 10 of Modern Family begins in two weeks and we now know that “a significant character” is set to die in the first half of the season.

Get your tissues ready, Modern Family fans! Speaking with EW about the upcoming 10th season, Modern Family co-creator Christopher Lloyd mentioned that we will see the death of a “significant character” in the first half of the season. This is huge news for the show, as they haven’t tackled many serious issues. Lloyd went on to mention there would be repercussions from the death that will affect the show for several episodes.

Of course, people are going to speculate about who could be passing away. Hearing the news, it was easy to figure out who would be the most likely to go. It would be unfortunate, but Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill) is the patriarch of the family and the eldest of the core cast. His passing away would be shocking in the sense that it didn’t have to happen, but it is the one that would be the easiest to accept.

Later in the interview, Lloyd specifically mentioned there would be a change in the family dynamic that people thought would happen “down the line” but is happening “sooner than expected.” This further alludes to Jay being the one to pass because, again, he’s the only one that we could have been expecting.

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What this likely means is that after Jay’s passing, Phil (Ty Burrell) steps into his role as the head of the family gatherings and potentially in being around for Joe (Jeremy Maguire). This also means Gloria (Sofia Vergara) will have to adjust to being a widow and a single mother again. Claire (Julie Bowen) and Mitch (Jesse Ferguson) will have to deal with the personal issues they had with their father that go unresolved. It should be interesting to watch it play out and also to see how the fans react.

Modern Family wouldn’t be the first ABC comedy to tackle serious issues within an arc on the show. Just last season, Black-ish aired a four-episode arc that dealt with the lead characters on the show, played by Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, hitting a rough patch in their marriage. During the arc, the entire tone of the show was altered and some of the episodes had zero funny moments at all.

There were some fans who did not enjoy this period. The show is a comedy and fans tune in for laughs. For those fans it felt like a completely new show and they tuned out. However, the fans who endured this rough patch appreciated that the show took it there. Many had dealt with or were dealing with difficulties in their marriages and it made the characters that much more relatable. The arc did not appear to hurt the ratings either, as the final three of those four episodes were above the season average for number of viewers.

We’ll see if Modern Family follows in the footsteps of Black-ish and makes the show serious for the entirety of this arc, or if they take a more balanced approach. The show is in the final year of its contract and Lloyd also mentioned he has a deadline for getting a new deal done to extend the show. Both sides would like to see it happen and we’ll keep you posted if there is any news on that front.

Modern Family returns to the ABC lineup for its 10th season on Wednesday, September 26 at 9/8 Central.