Son of the series’ main protagonist, Rick Grimes, Carl Grimes is a staple of Robert Kirman’s The Walking Dead. But, like many characters existing in both the comics and television universe, Carl’s fate was entirely different on paper than on screen. So, here’s what happened to Carl, and brace yourself for spoilers.
Carl is introduced at the beginning of The Walking Dead in both the comics and AMC’s work. Fans watched him age into a teenager through several arcs, including when he and the main cast lived together on a farm, in a prison, and at Alexandria. Throughout the years, he became more and more of a key figure in the survival and prosperity of his companions.
In fact, Carl survives the entirety of Kirkman’s comics. He released 193 issues from 2003 to 2019, and the younger Grimes popped up in all of them. The comic series ends with a 39-year-old Carl being a fixture of the Commonwealth and the husband to Sophia, Carol’s daughter and someone who was killed off in the television series during season 2. He also has a daughter, Andrea Grimes.
But, this isn’t Carl’s tale on The Walking Dead’s 11-season run on AMC — Carl died.
Carl was played by Chandler Riggs, who signed onto the show as a 10-year-old — season 1 aired in 2010. He navigated the apocalyptic world alongside Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Laurie Grimes (Sarah Wayne Callies) during the first three seasons until his mother’s untimely death giving birth to Carl’s step-sister, Judith.
Rick, Carl, and the infant pressed forward together until season 8 when they lived in Alexandria. After spotting him at a gas station, Carl searched the woods alone and outside his community’s walls for a then-unnamed man who appeared to need refuge. Carl eventually located him — Siddiq (Avi Nash) — and offered him an opportunity to live in Alexandria.
Well, Carl went out the way that most die in the zombie dystopia — he was bit by a walker.
As they made their way back to Alexandria, Carl and Siddiq fended off walkers but one ultimately bit Carl in the abdomen. He hid it at first. But, once they got back to Alexandria, he revealed the fatal wound to Rick and Michonne (Danai Gurira) during season 8 episode 8, “How It’s Gotta Be,” which aired in December 2017, around seven years after viewers first met Rigg’s Carl.
Carl then died during “Honor,” the season’s next episode.
Knowing he’d turn into a walker, a dying Carl says his goodbyes to Rick and Michonne, and he shot himself off-screen in a church while they waited outside. Distraught, Rick and Michonne buried Carl in Alexandria.
Carl’s demise was shocking to show watchers and comic loyalists alike, and it remains one of the most controversial storylines in The Walking Dead universe. There was much more AMC could’ve done with Carl’s character, which the comics proved. But, Carl’s journey on The Walking Dead’s TV series was cut short well before it wrapped in 2022.