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Robert Kirkman’s Biggest Walking Dead Regret Is Surprising

By Adam Carlson

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There is no denying the immense success that AMC’s The Walking Dead has accomplished.  It is a ratings juggernaut and one of the most discussed television shows all over the world.  Still, that isn’t enough to satisfy the creator of The Walking Dead, Robert Kirkman.

In fact, there’s one particular episode of The Walking Dead that Robert Kirkman said he would change completely if he could.  This news came in an article from The Hollywood Reporter that was covering an interview of Kirkman.  Here’s what the show’s creator said is his biggest regret from the show so far:

"“If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have done the CDC episode. It possibly gave away too much information and was such a big change very early on in the series.” Robert Kirkman said."

The episode in question is titled TS-19 and was the finale for The Walking Dead’s first season.  Rick Grimes and the gang travelled to the Center For Disease Control, where they met up with Dr. Jenner.  Jenner ended up sharing some huge information with Rick during the episode that changed the show forever.  The news was broken that EVERY person is infected and will turn after they die.

From that point on, there was no more mystery about whether or not bites or scratches cause the infection.  They now knew that everyone would transition into a walker after passing.  However, Rick didn’t share that information with everyone until after his incident with Shane.

"“I feel like there might have been a better way to wrap up the first season.It ended up being a fun episode. I love the character of Dr. Jenner and thought Noah did an amazing job. But there were things in that episode that I think seem very much not of The Walking Dead world.” Kirkman said."

Noah in this quote refers to to Noah Emmerich, the actor who played Doctor Edward Jenner.  Emmerich did a fantastic job portraying a character that had dealt with loss and was living out his own final moments.  On the surface, it was a great episode, but it did open some strange doors that do not exist in the comic book world.

"“I’ve been careful in the comic series to not say what’s happening in other parts of the world. It’s something that’s going to be fun to explore in the spinoff series. But the fact that France is mentioned in that episode and other things like that, I probably would have steered away from that stuff if I had to do it all over again.” Kirkman lamented."

Will we see the show eventually ending up going to France to seek out the cure that Dr. Jenner said that they were working on over there?  If so, that would be a complete deviation from the comic book world and something that it sounds like Robert Kirkman isn’t the least bit interested in doing.

Robert Kirkman should be able to look back at AMC’s The Walking Dead and find a show that he can be immensely proud of.  Instead, he sees the things that he could have done differently and opportunities that he had missed.  That’s one of the marks of a true genius and visionary.  Even though Kirkman isn’t thrilled about TS-19, at least it was a well made episode that is now a part of one of the most popular television franchises in history.

Next: The Walking Dead Only Exists Because Of Robert Kirkman's Big Lie

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