Robert Kirkman discusses saying farewell to Carl on The Walking Dead
By Adam Carlson
Fans are struggling to accept that Carl won’t be a part of AMC’s The Walking Dead for much longer but Robert Kirkman has some things to say about the matter.
Even though The Walking Dead is the most watched drama on television, fans of the series have always found something that they don’t seem to like about a particular time during the story’s development.
Whether it is slow pacing while developing characters, a lack of action, not having their favorite characters in an episode, high predictability, the levels of violence or other issues, fans have always been willing to voice their opinions about these situations.
Most recently, fans are upset and about the recent discovery that the show will be moving forward without Rick’s son Carl Grimes.
Carl suffered a walker bite while fighting alongside Siddiq in an earlier episode of the season and revealed that bite in the season 8 midseason finale. While Carl isn’t dead yet, the clock is ticking on how long he has left.
The outcry for Carl has been tremendous. Comic readers are confused as to what this will mean for the story going forward while viewers of the popular AMC show who may not have liked the character as much before are now furious about losing another of the characters from the first season.
To reply to this outrage, Entertainment Weekly caught up with The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman to talk about how the decision was made to kill Carl off the show and it sounds like there is a plan in place to make this death fit the story.
"“I think Scott first brought it up to me as a possibility probably about a year ago at this point,” says Kirkman, who is also an exec producer on the TV version. “At first, I was kind of like, ‘Well, that’s a big one, you know?’ I might have had a little bit of trepidation. But once he laid out to me exactly what his long-term plans were, and the things that come out of it, and the things that it leads to, it was something I got on board with.”"
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Readers of the comics know just how special Carl is in the comics. In fact, the story arc immediately following All-Out War primarily centers around Carl’s relationship with a new survivor as well as a very high ranking individual from The Saviors.
However, Kirkman believes that once people see what AMC has planned for the show when Carl is gone and being able to see what the program can make out of his death that they will understand why this route was taken.
"“The people that clearly are upset about losing Carl and questioning where the show goes without Carl — I really do believe that a lot of people will put those feelings aside when they watch this episode,” says Nicotero, “because they’re really going to get an opportunity to make some peace with it.”"
The problem with giving fans an unexpected moment like this with a character they’ve been watching for seven and a half seasons is that while it gives fans the unpredictability and drama they want, it isn’t something they want to see happen. It creates an emotional response. For many, anger has been how those feelings have been expressed.
"“We’re not supposed to be happy when these characters die. We are supposed to be worried about what comes next, and anticipating what comes next, and stressing about what comes next. That just shows that you’re engaged and you’re interested. Our job is to now pay that off and fulfill that interest, and prove that this was a decision worth making. That’s what we’ve got to do.”"
Next: Top 10 Carl moments from The Walking Dead
Are you confident that Robert Kirkman and AMC’s The Walking Dead can create something great out of Carl’s death? Or do you believe that this is a massive mistake that with deviate from the comics too much or hurt potential stories going forward? Let us know in the comments below.