The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus to pass Andrew Lincoln’s episode total

In season 9B of The Walking Dead Norman Reedus will have participated in more episodes than Andrew Lincoln by the end of the season.

The Walking Dead fans have known for awhile that the show was preparing Norman Reedus and Danai Gurira to become the focus of the show after Andrew Lincoln left. But that fact will really hit home in season 9B when Norman Reedus officially has a higher episode participation total than Andrew Lincoln, who has been the series lead since the beginning.

A very analytical Reddit user, SomeKrazyGuyUKno, did a character by character episode total breakdown on Reddit and found that Andrew Lincoln has played Rick Grimes in 103 out of 123 episodes and Norman Reedus has played Daryl Dixon in 99 out of 123 episodes. With 8 more episodes to come in season 9 of The Walking Dead by the end of the season Norman Reedus will have a higher appearance total for the show’s entire run than Andrew Lincoln.

The entire breakdown is interesting, and the next three characters with the most appearances after Andrew and Norman are Melissa McBride with 86 out of 123 episodes, Lauren Cohan with 81 out of 117 episodes, and Danai Gurira with 80 out of 110 episodes. Lauren Cohan left the show in season 9 but the door is open for her to return as Maggie Rhee and fans are hopeful that her work on the ABC series Whiskey Cavalier won’t keep her away from The Walking Dead for long.

Women Run The Apocalypse World

It makes perfect sense that of the five characters that have appeared in the show the most three of them are women. The women of The Walking Dead have always been an integral part of the story of the apocalypse world.

But as season 9B creeps closer it’s clear that the women are going to be running the apocalypse world for the foreseeable future. Michonne is keeping everyone safe at Alexandria and while there is a leadership council she clearly has a lot of influence over what happens in the community. Similarly, Carol has a lot of influence at the Kingdom as the Queen there. Tara may take over the leadership of Hilltop now that Jesus is dead and even if she isn’t the leader in name she will be providing support to whoever does lead. Magna, Yumiko, Connie, and Kelly will also have big roles to play in the future of Hilltop.

And the scariest villain ever on The Walking Dead who is appearing in season 9B is female also. Alpha, the terrifying leader of the Whispers, and her daughter Lydia will be causing some major distress and damage to all of the communities when the show returns on February 10th.