While some deaths and injuries in The Walking Dead have faded from memory, others have lived on in infamy. Former Walking Dead actor Austin Abrams has experienced that and more, even now, ten years later.
During an interview with USA Today at a premiere for his new film, Resident Evil (an adaptation of the famous zombie game), Abrams was asked about his former character on The Walking Dead, Ron Anderson. Abrams admitted that even now, he still gets heat from certain people regarding a decision his character made:
“I did have someone over there tell me that their boyfriend hated me for shooting Carl’s eye out, so sometimes. But that’s like a once-a-year thing, I think. I’m happy about that though…my character got to leave a mark.”
Leaving your mark is certainly a wild way to put it.
For those who don’t recall, Carl (Chandler Riggs) got his eye shot out by Ron in the season 6 episode, “No Way Out," but it didn’t really happen the way you think.
How Carl lost his eye in The Walking Dead
Ron wasn’t really aiming for Carl at that moment. He certainly resented the teenager, and they had gotten into arguments. If anything, they tried to be somewhat like friends when Carl first came to the compound, but things turned icy and dicey quickly, especially when Ron’s girlfriend, Enid (Katelyn Nacon), got involved.
However, Ron’s real path of anger wasn’t really directed at Carl. It was at Carl’s father, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln).
The moment Rick stepped into Alexandria with the entire prison gang, he tore apart Ron’s life. He knew his father, Pete Anderson (Corey Brill), was abusive, but it’s not like he wanted him to die. Rick took Pete out—granted, it was after Deanna (Tovah Feldshuh) gave him the okay — but it left a mark on Ron.
Not only that, but Rick started a relationship with Ron’s mother, Jessie (Alexandra Breckenridge), and he really didn’t like that. Granted, we had already seen that Rick was into Jessie long before it actually happened, but Ron still wasn’t a fan. When the walker herd came to Alexandria, Jessie and Ron’s brother, Sam (Major Dodson), were devoured by walkers after Sam panicked and attracted them.
After that, Ron basically broke down and aimed a gun at Rick, hoping to kill him since his entire family was essentially destroyed the moment he came to Alexandria. But before Ron could pull the trigger, Michonne (Danai Gurira) came and stabbed Ron in the chest.
Before he died, however, Ron was able to pull the trigger, and his aim was off, resulting in Carl’s eyes getting shot out — which is why, up until Carl’s death, we see him with an eye patch. So really, it was all one big misunderstanding.
Even so, that moment certainly left an impact on Carl in later seasons and is something many fans remember. It’s a shame we didn’t get to see much of older Carl with the eyepatch, considering what happened to him in season 8, but it was cool for the time we got. And that was all thanks to Ron.
Austin Abrams has been on a roll lately
While plenty of The Walking Dead fans remember Abrams for his time on the show (albeit briefly), he's been on a horror movie roll lately, with roles in Weapons and the aforementioned Resident Evil, which already looks like it’ll be a great video game adaptation.
He’s also going to appear in a new film soon called Whalefall, about a scuba diver who gets swallowed by a whale and has to make it out somehow, or else, he will die. Horror has been his go-to genre lately.
It seems Abrams’ earlier adventures in horror trained him for these roles, and to an extent, he'll always be the kid who shot out Carl’s eye, even if he is killed as a zombie killer in another universe.
You can now see Resident Evil, starring Austin Abrams, in theaters.
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