Former Walking Dead Actor Imagines How Carl Would’ve Coped In A World Without Rick

Former Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs (Carl) has given his own two cents on Rick’s shock departure from the AMC series.

Word comes by way of ComicBook.com, who caught up with the young actor at the San Jose Fan Fest late last month. He’s still adjusting to life beyond The Walking Dead – remember, Carl Grimes fell prey to a walker bite during the midseason finale of season 8 – but when the conversation inevitably veered towards TWD, Riggs offered an interesting take on Carl’s hypothetical reaction to the (presumed) death of his father.

It’s kind of hard to know what Carl would be like after a six-year time jump. I think he definitely would take on this, if Rick wasn’t in the picture anymore, I think Carl would definitely take on this, I guess, just the older brother role, and really take care of [his siblings], and do what he’s been doing — or do what he was doing — for the years that he spent with Judith. I honestly don’t really know what he’d be like, but it would have been really interesting to see.

With Rick Grimes ostensibly out of the picture, Chandler Riggs is of the belief that Carl would’ve honored his father’s legacy and adopted the role of leader, fighting zombies and generally maintaining some semblance of peace as our group continues their journey through the ravaged wasteland. But as Riggs so rightly points out, the onus is now on Judith to fly the Grimes flag in season 9B and beyond.

Currently in the midst of its annual winter hiatus, The Walking Dead season 9 isn’t expected to return until the early stages of 2019 – February, in all likelihood – though with talks of a tenth season already underway, it’s clear AMC still has big plans for its primetime zombie drama.