What happened to Judith in The Walking Dead?

Fans of The Walking Dead have watched Judith Grimes, aka Lil Asskicker, grow up on the series. This is a privilege not given to her comic counterpart, as she died with her mother early in the comic story. It seemed obsurd that the creators would have her live, as having an infant in the apocalypse isn’t easy to manage. But, now that she is older, she has become a significant part of the story.

There have been several actresses portraying Judith to account for her aging up.

The list includes:

Season 3
Adelaide & Eliza Cornwell
Loudyn & Leighton Case

Season 4
Tinsley & Anniston Price
Eleora & Elisea DiFranco
Sophia & Delia Oeland

Season 5
Charlotte & Clara Ward
Kiley & Jaelyn Behun

Season 6-9
Chloe & Sophia Garcia-Frizzi

Season 8 (6-year-old Judith)
Kinsley Isla Dillon

Season 9
Cailey Fleming

The Walking Dead – Judith

Judith was born during season 3 at the prison when her mother Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) sacrificed her life for her child. Maggie (Lauren Cohan) performed a c-section to remove the child,  and Lori’s son Carl (Chandler Riggs) was the one to put his mother down so she wouldn’t reanimate. It was a devastating scene and one of the most brutal deaths in the series.

During the season 4 prison attack, her father, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), and her brother Carl found Judith’s empty car seat smeared with blood and assumed she had died. But, luckily Tyreese (Chad E. Coleman) saved her, and she was eventually reunited with her family.

After the season 9 time jump, an older Judith (Cailey Fleming) appears wearing the hat passed from her father to her brother to herself, a smaller version of her adoptive mother Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) katana, and carrying her father’s revolver. It was time to let Judith shine.

When it was discovered that her father didn’t die in the bridge explosion, she told her mother to go in search of him and hasn’t told a soul of her father’s survival. Will she reveal this to Daryl (Norman Reedus), her brother RJ (Antony Azor), or anyone else in the final episodes?

She has proved to possess all the great qualities of those who have raised her. She is kind, brave, and honest. She has taken it upon herself to school the other children in Alexandria how to defend themselves. She loves those in her “found” family as much as any blood relative. It will be interesting to see how the story winds up for Judith.

Judith is one of the few original characters from the early seasons who has survived. The final season trailer shows that she and Daryl are injured and lying on the floor. But, would the creators have her survive all of this only to kill her at the end? Perhaps.

Another theory is that we will see a time jump, as in the comics, with Judith taking her brother Carl’s place in that timeline. It would be interesting for sure, as the comic time jump is 20 years.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC and AMC+ on October 2.

Follow Undead Walking on Twitter and sign up for the once-daily Undead Walking newsletter to avoid missing out on all things in The Walking Dead universe.