If you’re worried that the impending departure of Andrew Lincoln (and Lauren Cohan!) would spark a mass exodus, don’t; Norman Reedus hopes to stick around The Walking Dead until the very end.
CBR caught up with the fan-favorite, who’s played renowned tough nut Daryl Dixon since day one, to talk all things Walking Dead, including season 9 and what comes next after the show’s impassioned fanbase have said their farewells to Rick Grimes, the anchor point of AMC’s flagship drama for the past eight years.
It’ll be an emotional and bittersweet finale for Andrew Lincoln’s bearded hero, though you needn’t worry about Norman Reedus following suit – the actor is hopeful that his Daryl Dixon will be around to witness the series finale of The Walking Dead, whenever that may be.
You know, I started on Season One of the show, and I’d love to bookend it. I put so much effort into this. For me to walk away now would just seem so cowardly. It’s a fight every day, in a million different ways. But it’s a fight that I’ve been invested in. My family’s here, I like my life here. I like riding my motorcycle through the country to work. I’ve been in New York a long, long time, and now every time I go back to New York I just wanna go back to Georgia.
Going one step further, Reedus even expressed interest in developing a spinoff series for his Walking Dead favorite, so long as the core script is up to snuff.
Via CBR:
I just want to tell honest stories. And I think sometimes, this show’s a huge show. The scripts are this long, and you have this many days to shoot them, and it’s work. It’s tough. We shoot scenes on this show in an hour that if you were on a movie would take four days to shoot. You have that luxury on a film … I would like to slow the pace entirely. Don’t rush me; I’d like a tiny script and stretch it out. I think that would be fun and honest. So, yeah, if it was like that.
The Walking Dead‘s ninth season is currently scheduled to begin next weekend (October 7th), by which point we should have a better idea of that 18-month time jump and what it means for our survivors – and the degraded, rotting walkers who stalk their every move.
