Two and a Half Men announced that same month that he had developed an idea for "Two and a Half Men" to be redone that would exclude Sheen and have Cryer in a key role alongside a new character. On May 13, CBS announced Ashton Kutcher would join the cast. Kutcher was quoted as saying, "I can't replace Charlie Sheen but I'm going to work my ass off to entertain the hell out of people!" On August 2, 2011, it was reported that the season-nine premiere would begin with Sheen's character having been killed off and his ex-girlfriends attending his funeral. Afterward, Charlie's Malibu home
Two and a Half Men (season 8) show was already on hiatus, with production scheduled to resume on February 28. On February 24, 2011, it was announced that the show would shut down production for the rest of the season due to Sheen making offensive comments about Chuck Lorre, the creator and lead writer of "Two and a Half Men", on the February 24 edition of a radio broadcast hosted by Alex Jones. On March 7, 2011, Sheen was fired from the show, which led to the cancellation of the remaining eight episodes. After much speculation over whether Sheen would return to the series after all, Lorre