(CNN) "Modern Family" fans should prepare to grieve next season.

Series co-creator Christopher Lloyd said that in Season 10, which premieres later this month, a main character will die.

"We're handling some bigger life events in this season," Lloyd told Entertainment Weekly . "We do deal with a death, which is certainly a topic that families have to deal with, and on television, it's not easy to do because that's a heavy subject. But at the same time, it would seem unusual for a family not to go through it."

As for hints of who it might be, Lloyd said it's a "significant character on the series ... [the death] will be a moving event and an event that has repercussions across several episodes."

The show, which first premiered in 2009, stars Ed O'Neill, Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Sofia Vergara, Eric Stonestreet, Ariel Winter, Sarah Hyland, Nolan Gould, Rico Rodriguez, Aubrey Anderson-Emmons and Jeremy Maguire.

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