Michael Cudlitz knew early on: Arrow wouldn’t decide Abraham’s Fate
By Nir Regev
Michael Cudlitz confirmed in a new interview, that he knew Abraham wouldn’t meet demise with an arrow… Pretty much from the beginning. By Kirkman’s words.
Michael Cudlitz interviewed with Digital Trends’ Mike Mettler recently, and answered a poignant question. Did he always know the ‘arrow through the eye’ scene would not feature Abraham’s fate as in the comics? Well, we have the answer!
Apparently, Cudlitz was aware before he ever saw the final scripts or we saw Denise or Negan. All through Cudlitz’ interpretation of Robert Kirkman’s interviews regarding Abraham’s death. Where Kirkman expressed some regret over the way it was done in the original comic series.
Michael Cudlitz on infamous Arrow:
“I did know early on I was not going to get an arrow through the head… But, well, I didn’t really know for sure. All I knew was what everybody else knew… That Robert Kirkman said in some interviews that he was not happy with the death he gave Abraham in the graphic novels, so I extrapolated that to figure it would be something else.”
Sure, he didn’t have a guarantee with a stamp on it but Cudlitz estimated Abraham would outlive his comic origins. His assertion was proven correct. Usually, a gut feeling is the right one after all. Cudlitz, mentioned preferring Abraham’s death by Lucille, calling it a “much more fitting soldier’s death”.
Michael Cudlitz on Abraham’s eventual demise by Lucille:
“It was a very selfless death, rather than being a passive death.” – Michael Cudlitz
From this quote, we can be certain Cudlitz saw Abraham as going down as a fallen hero rather than an innocent bystander as Denise was (standing in front of Daryl). It was Dwight after all, that told Daryl ‘Denise’s untimely fate was an accident as the arrow was always meant for him’. That he simply wasn’t the best yet with Daryl’s crossbow.
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As we now know, Denise ‘standing in’ for Abraham’s last moment in the comics bought Abraham some additional time… A last hurrah of sorts.
Until meeting his end at the hands of Negan’s Lucille seemingly at random. Though Negan seemed to hint at Abraham being Rick’s secondary leader like Simon is for Negan. His choice then, might have been more thought out than impulsively spontaneous.
Nevertheless, Negan seemed to get a kick out of Abraham’s last words on that now infamous Season 7 opener of The Walking Dead.
It appears Michael Cudlitz was relatively as comfortable as you can get in a show like this that Dwight’s arrow wasn’t meant for him. ‘Living on Borrowed time’, as he once called Abraham’s last episodes on Talking Dead.
Related Story: Michael Cudlitz talks Easter eggs for The Walking Dead comic fans
To read the full Digital Trends interview by Mike Mettler with Michael Cudlitz, go to this link.