When you think of The Walking Dead, some characters pop into your mind instantly. One that pops up pretty quickly, maybe even first, is Daryl Dixon, played by Norman Reedus.
Daryl first appeared on our screens in 2010 as an original character in this AMC adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic series. There were already many great additions from the comics The Walking Dead was based on. At the time, it seemed almost surprising to add a new character, since the ensemble was already so large.
However, 16 years after the premiere, Daryl Dixon has become almost too important for The Walking Dead franchise — where his character's risk is above all else, and his plot armor is too thick. As a result, his role has been hindered in more ways than one.
The Walking Dead's mantra was “no one is safe," unless you’re Daryl
It all started with the main series. Daryl’s popularity skyrocketed after season 1, and he grew even bigger in season 2, when he moved from a recurring character to the main cast. Add in the slowly forming friendship with domestic abuse survivor Carol (Melissa McBride), and he instantly became a fan favorite.
Genuinely, you couldn't escape him on Tumblr back then; it was a wild time to be alive on the internet.
That’s the main point here. As the show continued and ratings grew, he remained one of the most popular characters, so much so that many people tuned in just for him. Then, in season 7, when ratings began to decline slowly and he was one of the few characters still around, it became almost impossible to kill him off.
The show willingly killed off Rick (Andrew Lincoln), the main character, before Daryl. Granted, Rick was still alive and got his own spinoff years later, but the show completely removed him to allow Lincoln to return to the UK. As a result, The Walking Dead was more comfortable keeping the man who told the story than a side character who became bigger than ever before.
And now, several years after the final season, he's still alive, with his own show, and it just feels like he’s the face of the franchise instead of who it should really be.
Rick and Carl’s leading roles were cut in favor of Daryl
This isn’t me saying that I don’t love Daryl because, trust me, I did and do. I had a whole poster of him in my bedroom when I was 14. Writing that makes me realize I was, indeed, part of the problem back then, but that’s beside the point.
I do love Daryl as a character, and I have enjoyed his spinoff series, but at the end of the day, this series was never supposed to be about him, not in this way. It was supposed to be about Rick and then, later on, Carl (Chandler Riggs), sharing Rick's never-ending mission to protect his family and keep them safe. We never got that because Rick left the show, and Carl was killed in season 8 — which, by far, is still the wildest move this series has ever made.
Then, Daryl became far too important for The Walking Dead, and his death seemed unlikely in the mainline show. I thought if he died, it would be in the spinoff, but now even that seems like an impossibility.
Daryl will probably survive until the end, but not because it’s the right choice
This isn’t me saying that I don’t want Daryl to live. Of course I do. He is, at the end of the day, an original from the first season who has been through a lot of terrible things and deserves a happy ending. This is The Walking Dead, and people don’t get those endings all the time.
If Daryl died, it would be in noble fashion, saving someone he loved (probably Carol) and going out like a badass. That likely won't happen because season 3 of Daryl Dixon prevented it.
We’re starting to dig into Daryl’s backstory, about what he truly feels is “home” and how he feels like he’s always running. And if we’re confronting Daryl’s past, there’s a decent chance that we won’t be seeing him suddenly get bitten by a walker now — even if the new walker variant is terrifyingly fast. That would be poor storytelling. We need some resolution after 16 years of watching this character.
Rick and Daryl have never reunited, and that’s the one thing fans want to see. If you take that away from people, it’s not going to go over well at all.
It’s a shame, because I feel at one time, they could have given him a decent ending. But now, he’s become the face of the franchise, and I don’t know if The Walking Dead will ever really be the same afterward, with whatever the boss decides to do with this universe once these spinoffs are done. Even so, it was a pleasure seeing Reedus as the crossbow-wielding zombie killer for as long as I did.
You can stream all 11 seasons of The Walking Dead on Netflix. Stay tuned for more news about the future of The Walking Dead franchise beyond Daryl Dixon season 4.
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