Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes, Danai Gurira as Michonne - The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 8 - Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC (© 2017 AMC Film Holdings LLC. All Rights Reserved.)
As AMC announces that its most popular show, “The Walking Dead,” has been renewed for yet another season, one of the key stars that made a stir in Season 8 is teasing a major death and departure from the show when it returns later this year.
[SPOILER ALERT: The remainder of this article will discuss the Season 8 midseason finale of “The Walking Dead.”]
Fans were shocked at the end of the most recent episode of the zombie drama when it was revealed that a character that’s been around since the very beginning was given a death sentence. Carl Grimes, played for the past eight years by actor Chandler Riggs, finally had to tell his father and the rest of the Alexandria survivors that he’d been bitten by a walker.
On a mission of mercy to find a stranded survivor in the wild, Carl bit off a bit more than he could chew by engaging a group of walkers. The encounter ultimately led to him being bitten, which any zombie fan knows means he’ll soon succumb to a fever and turn into an undead monster himself. However, speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Carl will cover a lot of emotional ground before he says his final goodbye in the midseason premiere.
“It is gonna be some of Carl’s final moments in the next episode. And though you can see that the story is coming to an end, he does have a lot to say because he’s been watching Rick over the last however many years, and has been learning from him and seeing every mistake that he’s made and every right decision. And he’s turned out to be a really well-shaped leader — kind of suited for this world and an icon for the new age,” the star told Entertainment Weekly. “And so Carl’s just really going to be trying to teach Rick as much as he can.”
(© 2016 AMC Film Holdings LLC. All Rights Reserved.)
The star also teased a plotline in which his death will be the catalyst to bring his father, Rick, to a place of mercy for Negan. The notorious villain, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, has been causing mayhem for the show’s heroes since his introduction in Season 6. It seems now that the all-out-war story arc will include the decision about whether or not to kill him for his crimes.
In the event Negan doesn’t meet his end in Season 8, the door is officially open for the character to have a role in Season 9, which TV Guide reports was announced by AMC over the weekend. Now, fans just have to wait until the show returns on Feb. 25, 2018 to see how things shape out with Carl’s bite and the war against Negan.