Fans of The Mindy Project were thrown for quite the loop when the very end of Tuesday night’s show revealed big news: Mindy is pregnant. Is this storyline going to be a fun one for fans or a swing and a miss? Sometimes developments like these can torpedo a show’s success, but viewers are hopeful there are good times ahead with this one.

Mindy Kaling says via TVLine that they’ve actually been talking about an accidental pregnancy storyline since Season 1 of The Mindy Project. While Mindy and Danny’s romance is still relatively new, and they’re already facing some challenges regarding their seemingly separate visions for the future, it seems the production team thought this was the perfect time for this story.

Kaling says as follows.

“Nothing is funnier to me than an OB-GYN impregnating another OB-GYN accidentally. They, of all people, should know better.”

The next episode, which airs on Tuesday, February 10, will show Mindy trying to tell Danny about the pregnancy. This one is titled “Dinner at the Castellanos.” It seems that as she is trying to break the big news, Danny’s dad and half-sister show up for an awkward family dinner hosted by his mom, Annette.

Mindy says that both Fox and NBC Universal, which produces the show, were supportive of the pregnancy storyline. She says that this will complicate Mindy and Danny’s relationship and open up a lot of additional avenues of comedy.

In the episodes ahead, viewers will see Danny and Mindy tackle their plans for the future, and it seems they will even move out of New York City. They will not be following a traditional couple’s path, but nothing has ever been traditional about these two. Fans already saw that the two were struggling a bit as she contemplated opening a practice in California while he bought a brownstone for them in New York City as a surprise.

As TVLine had teased in a blind item about this pregnancy storyline a while back, Mindy’s pregnancy defies the typical show approach to a development like this. The site predicted that fans would likely have a mixed reaction to the story, and that does seem to be the case.

Kaling shared via Entertainment Weekly that the writers have always liked doing things out of order for Danny and Mindy, since at least on paper they’re a couple that shouldn’t work to begin with. It seems the writers were essentially always on board with the pregnancy story concept, it was just a matter of figuring out the timing.

The actress, writer and comedian teases that as Mindy tries to tell Danny the big news, it will be a poignant and incredibly funny challenge and she thinks it’s one of their best episodes. The pregnancy will motivate Mindy more than she already has been, as she now has even more reason to succeed.

The character of Mindy Lahiri has always been hilarious, and Kaling teases Mindy Project spoilers that this version of Lahiri is the most fun version yet. She will struggle to adjust to the physical changes that come with pregnancy, but it will all be done in a hilarious way.

For those worried about how this big twist will affect the show, Kaling says, “It’s like Mindy and Danny are collaborating on the most worthy project now.” She says that parenting will bring out new sides of both characters and it pulls in more of their extended families than viewers have seen previously.

What do you think of the big Mindy Project baby twist? Will Mindy Kaling be able to pull this off for Lahiri and Castellano fans in a way that will keep them tuning in for more? “Dinner at the Castellanos” airs as the next new episode of The Mindy Project on Tuesday, February 10, on Fox.

[Image via Erica Parise/Fox]