Many actors from The Walking Dead maintain a great deal of affection for the series even after they’re unceremoniously killed off, and some have reappeared in varying capacities. Now, Emily Kinney, who played Beth from the start of season 2 to the character’s death midway through season 5, has revealed that she hasn’t ruled out the possibility of coming back.
Kinney, who was speaking on Tommy DiDario’s lockdown interview series Let’s Stay Together, said she was not specifically campaigning to return, but would welcome the opportunity if it somehow arose.
“I mean, I did get shot in the head. But I mean, I loved the show, I loved working on it. It makes me so happy to be a part of it, I’m very proud of being a part of that show. So it’s not out of [the question] … if there was some way, sure.”
Beth exited the series in the fifth season’s mid-season finale “Coda.” After being abducted, she spent some time trapped in a hospital that purported to be a safe haven but in reality was riddled with abuse by the corrupt former cops running it who treated people like indentured slaves. In a stand off, Beth was killed along with the lead officer and her body taken home for burial.
The cast of The Walking Dead is vast and sprawling with many weaving in and out of the main narrative, and even characters who have died have sometimes come back, and not in the way a series about the shambling undead might make you think. Hallucinations are a semi-regular occurrence endured by several of the main players, and have seen many deceased individuals, such as Shane, Hershel, Sasha, Lizzie, the Governor, Lori, Andrea and Beth herself, appear to the living in ways addressing their state of mind.
Should Beth return in such a manner, she would likely be seen by her sister Maggie, who’s set to return to the show after Lauren Cohan’s new series Whiskey Cavalier was unjustly cancelled after a single season, or Daryl, with whom she formed a connection after the pair were splintered from the main group following the Governor’s assault on the prison.
Showrunner Scott Gimple has previously discussed bringing back dead characters by telling their backstories, but the nature of Beth’s history would be difficult to relate without her father Hershel, whose actor Scott Wilson sadly passed away in 2018.
Beth was a character who deserved better than she got, but the world of The Walking Dead is often unkind to innocents, and any reminder of Beth and what happened to her would serve to emphasize this all over again.
