Shonda Rhimes put the last nail in Columbus Short's career on Scandal. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the show's creator reveals that Short's character Harrison Wright is, definitively, "gone."
"What you think happened to his character, happened to his character," she said, without denying that what "happened" is that Harrison was killed. As for who will be most affected by Harrison's death — besides Short, of course — Rhimes says, "Olivia, really, but all the Gladiators are. It will be very devastating for Abby in a surprising way. You'll see how she's coping with it in a very different way than you would expect."
She adds that season four of the hit political drama will bring focus back to the "core" characters. 
"By necessity, in a weird way, last season we had to expand our universe," Rhimes explains. "We had a lead actress who for reasons that are private [Kerry Washington's pregnancy] was moving slower and could work less. But now that we have the ability to use Kerry the way we need to use her, it means we get to bring everything back to our core in a way that we had in season two and one."
Fans don't have much longer to wait. Scandal returns for its fourth season on Thursday, September 25.
BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.
Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

(Photos from left: ABC/Eric McCandless, Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)