The Walking Dead‘s recent midseason finale featured one of the zombie drama’s most shocking moments ever, as Carl Grimes was revealed to have been bitten by a walker, meaning his time on the show will surely come to end when TWD returns (at least, we assume that’ll be the case).
With Chandler Riggs’ character having been part of The Walking Dead since the very beginning, it’s hard to imagine just how much his death will affect the other survivors that have known him the longest. This is especially true of Rick Grimes, as played by Andrew Lincoln, who we’ve seen risk everything to protect his son over the past eight seasons.
Not only will this be the show’s biggest death yet, but it’s also the biggest deviation from Robert Kirkman’s comics to date, leading to some disgruntled reactions among The Walking Dead community. One thing many are wondering is if Carl will now be killed off in the source material, too, but if Kirkman is to be believed, he won’t.
“As far as whether or not I think it’s going to change things for the comic in a way that is detrimental to the show, I definitely don’t,” he said. “I think that there’s a lot of great stuff from the comic that will be adapted into the show in Season 9 or beyond”
This should come as welcome news to those who keep up with the comics, as the character has had quite a prominent role on the page for a while now and like in the TV show, is a firm fan favorite. So, it’s good to hear that things won’t be changing there. On the small screen, however, they will be, and in just a few weeks’ time, we’ll be saying our goodbyes to Carl Grimes, as Chandler Riggs makes his exit.
The Walking Dead shuffles back onto our screens via AMC on February 25th. Looking further afield, and it appears change is afoot for the network’s undead flagship, as outgoing showrunner Scott M. Gimple will hand the keys over to Angela Kang in time for the show’s ninth season.
