For years, we thought that Rick Grimes and his son Carl were two of the only characters who were safe from certain death on The Walking Dead. However, this belief was shattered when Carl was killed off halfway through season 8. And then Rick himself was written out of the show early in season 9. As both Grimes boys were integral to the ongoing story in the comics, we just assumed they would stick around on screen. And one star of the show definitely wishes they had.
Ross Marquand has played Aaron on the series since season 5 and is known to be a longtime fan of the franchise since before that. He recently joined TWD co-star Dan Fogler on his 4D Xperience podcast where the pair talked about the shocking issue #192 of the comic book which featured the death of Rick. Marquand took the opportunity to lament that the TV show didn’t take so long to kill Rick off as well.
“See, I wish — I mean, obviously, the show deviates — I just wish Rick and Carl were still around.”
Of course, Rick isn’t gone for good, as his fate was left open-ended in his final TWD episode, setting up Andrew Lincoln’s return in an upcoming movie trilogy. Marquand went on to acknowledge this but is still sad that there won’t be more from Carl, who gets to grow so much in the comics.
“I think everyone knows at this point if you’re a fan of the show, and they’ve announced, that there’s gonna be more with Rick. So you know he’s not really dead. But Carl, I think in the comic books Carl goes on to be the next hero, the next big savior of everything.”
The TV writers might wish that they’d kept Carl around themselves when they eventually come to the show’s ending and find that they can’t adapt the comics’ final issue that easily, as it flashes forward and follows an older Carl as a father. Fans have speculated, though, that Judith or R.J. could potentially take his place on TV.
The Walking Dead season 10 returns to AMC this October.
