As insurance in case something happens to any of the cast of any given TV series they will write a script for each character to meet their untimely demise. They take that scene and tuck it away just in case something like this or maybe a car and plane accident happens and they lose a key character.
If this series didn’t do that; someone wasn’t doing their job.
I should add that Spacey is the key character in this show so without him; it all ends. He IS the show.
Interesting. I wondered that with the Grandfather on Blue Bloods and other older characters, even though in real life, he’s only a few years older than Selleck.
They don’t actually do that.