The Walking Dead has had no shortage of shocking deaths over the past eight seasons, to say the least, but it may have just committed its most controversial character exit ever. As everyone knows by now, the midseason finale that aired in December revealed that Carl Grimes had been bitten by a walker, meaning that Rick’s son is sure to meet his end when the show resumes next month.
Seeing as Chandler Riggs has been with the series since the very beginning and is one of the few original cast members who was left, fans have not reacted positively to this. It turns out that it’s not just the audience who feel this way, though, as The Walking Dead‘s Norman Reedus opened up to EW on the topic, too, saying that he was “desperately unhappy” when he found out about Carl being killed off.
“I was desperately unhappy about that. I’ve seen Chandler grow up from a little boy. I’ve known that kid so long, and it always hurts when you lose a family member on the show. Chandler is definitely a family member to me. I was not happy about it. I always thought Chandler would be the last man standing, to be honest.”
This isn’t the first time that Reedus has spoken about how close he is to his co-stars to the extent that he sees them as one big surrogate family. Given that, it’s understandable that the actor is heartbroken by the loss of another long-running member of The Walking Dead clan.
For Reedus and anyone else who’s unhappy with Carl’s impending doom, The Walking Dead‘s creator Robert Kirkman has promised fans that the death won’t throw the show completely off the rails and it will still continue to adapt the comic book storylines faithfully, despite the loss of such an important character.
We’ll get to judge for ourselves if that’s the case when The Walking Dead returns to AMC on February 25th.
