House creator David Shore has admitted that he is "really disappointed" by Lisa Edelstein's departure from the show.
It was announced last month that the actress will not reprise her role of Lisa Cuddy in the medical drama's upcoming eighth season.
Speaking to reporters at a recent WGF charity event, Shore said: "I am still reeling from it, but we just started meeting a few days ago... to map out the first half of the next season, and we are having some very frank discussions about what we are going to do."
The showrunner also revealed that he would have altered the show's recent season finale if he had known of Edelstein's decision.
"I don't know how exactly [and] I don't what [else] it would have been," he said. "It probably would have involved more closure on the [Cuddy] character."
Shore confirmed that he is hoping to bring Edelstein back "for an episode or two" to wrap up her character's storyline, but added that the House writers "have to plan for her not coming back".
"It might be interesting to get her in... to wrap up Cuddy," he speculated. "[It] probably would make fans happy, but we have to plan unfortunately on her not coming back, because there's no indication that she would at this point."
He went on to say that a number of options are being considered with regards to Cuddy's replacement on the show.
"It depends on how things unfold," he hinted. "There... may well be more than one [replacement]."
The new season of House will air on Mondays at 9/8c in the fall on Fox.
