Alan Ball & Charlaine Harris Talk Death of (SPOILER)

EW.com has an interview with True Blood executive producer Alan Ball and author Charlaine Harris to discuss the death of a major character on Sunday night’s episode of the TV series. This character played a major role in the books, so why was the storyline cut short on the show?

Executive producer Alan Ball tells EW that just because Sookie’s mentor is gone doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of the fairy world. “After everything that was going on with the fairies in the first episode, I think we wanted to sort of put a pin in that, but obviously it’s not over,” says Ball. “I felt it would have more impact if it was someone we knew as opposed to just a random fairy.”

It’s also another example of Blood diverging from its source material, like keeping Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) alive and introducing the original character of Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). Says Ball, “If we did just do everything in the books, there would be no surprises. It’s not like we have a formula for what we’re going to keep from the books and what we’re going to change. If there’s a consensus that something makes sense, that’s usually the way we go.” For her part, Harris says she “was surprised” by the death of Claudine, but trusts in Ball and where he takes the stories. Says the author, “If he can be gracious to me, I can certainly be gracious enough to wait and see where he’s going.”