"That was a difficult conversation, but not as hard as you might think. Robert has been playing this part for 12 years. Robert is also quite an accomplished stage actor, and someone who was chafing a bit, saying, ‘Gosh, this part is getting smaller. I don’t have as much to do as I used to’ — and I couldn’t disagree with him. He had suggested a couple of times that it felt like it might be that his story had played out, and I couldn’t disagree with him on that either."

Duff also went on to say that, although they found a creative way to write Gossett off that both satisfied the actor and the show's over-arching plot, it was still a difficult call to make.

"It’s hard only because we’re all family here, and letting go of a family member, even under the best of circumstances, is hard to do. I don’t know how they manage it on The Walking Dead! I would be a nervous wreck. But I needed it for storytelling purposes; it wasn’t just, ‘Oh, let’s kill off a character,’ or that the show was too expensive."

He continued, "It was all about dramatizing this theme as thoroughly as we could and stay relevant in a world where police officers are at more risk than ever, and also looking at racism in all of its different variants. We looked at racism last year in our five-parter, and I see no reason to let go of it. It’s a big issue."

Fans of the show were sorry to see him go, even though his successor, Camryn Manheim, proved to be a well-liked addition to the cast who sort of filled the void that Gossett's character left behind.

Some thought that Chief Taylor's death came out of nowhere and his being written off was "disrespectful." Others were just saddened that he was gone from the program forever.