The Decider reports:

Now that ABC is officially going forward with The Conners, there’s a Roseanne-shaped elephant in the room. How will the show continue without its star?

The logline for The Conners suggests that Roseanne has died: the series “will follow the Conner family who, after a sudden turn of events, are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.”

Despite the political conversation surrounding the series, ABC insisted that The Conners is simply a show is about one particular family in one particular small town.