Warning! Spoilers ahead! 

AMC's massive hit The Walking Dead established earlier on that anything could happen at any time, including the worst. Still, a number of characters made it quite a long time. While none of the cast members on the show appeared in all 177 episodes of the show, here are the actors who appeared in the most episodes of The Walking Dead. 

Norman Reedus (175 Episodes)

Daryl Dixon, played by Norman Reedus, was a fan favorite almost from the very beginning, and by the end of the show, he was hands down the most popular character. Reedus was amazing as the gruff, tough-as-nails survivor and he appeared in more episodes than any other actor, 175 in total. He also returned in the follow-up show The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.

Melissa McBride (174 Episodes)

The character on The Walking Dead that had the most incredible character arc has to be Carol played by Melissa McBride. Carol was a fairly meek housewife to an abusive husband. She didn't stay the way and by the end of the show's run, and McBride's 175 episodes, she was someone you definitely wanted to have on your side against the zombies. 

Lauren Cohan (144 Episodes)

It's hard to believe that viewers didn't meet Maggie Greene Rhee until the second season when the survivors reached the farm. Still, actress Lauren Cohan appeared in the third-most episodes by the end, 144 in total. Though she had one of the most tragic story arcs, she comes out on top at the very end, proving how tough she really was.  

Christian Serratos (130 Episodes)

Fans of The Walking Dead aren't introduced to Rosalita, played by Christian Serratos, until Season 4 and Serratos didn't become a main cast member until the following season. From then on though, she becomes a key survivor right up until the very end when she becomes the final victim of the zombies on the show, after 130 episodes.

Josh McDermitt (130 Episodes)

Josh McDermitt's character, Eugene, is one of the most interesting characters on the show. At first, he's weak, selfish, and spineless, but he eventually grows into one of the most capable survivors on the show, using his smarts to help out in many ways. 

Danai Gurira (126 Episodes)

From the first time viewers see Michonne, played by Danai Gurira, until the end of the show, she was among the most beloved and awesome characters. Though she wasn't introduced until the end of Season 2, Gurira appeared in 126 episodes over the final 10 seasons. And she wasn't someone you ever wanted to mess with.

Seth Gilliam (125 Episodes)

Former cast member of The Wire Seth Gilliam plays one of the more controversial characters, the priest Gabriel Stokes. Though he didn't join the show until Season 5, he played a huge role, both good and bad, with the survivors over the final seven seasons. 

Andrew Lincoln (121 Episodes)

If there is a main character of The Walking Dead, at least in the first nine seasons, it's Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln. He's the de facto leader at almost every point in the show, and the father of two kids. At the end of Season 9 Grimes disappears and at the end of Season 11 it's revealed he's still alive, but only a little is revealed about where he ends up until the follow-up show, The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live.

Ross Marquand (116 Episodes)

Audiences first meet Ross Marquand's character Aaron when he recruits the survivors to join the community he's a part of in Alexandria. From Season 5, when he is introduced, until the end of the show, Aaron is a key character who appeared in a total of 116 episodes. 

Chandler Riggs (109 Episodes)

Carl Grimes was, other than his infant sister, the youngest member of the group of main survivors. Rick's son, played by Chandler Riggs, was a key character in both the TV and in the comic books, though his run on the show ended before the character's arc is over in the comic books. Riggs left the show in dramatic fashion after 109 episodes to attend college. 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (95 Episodes)

The Walking Dead became known for introducing a big baddie in every season, but no one was ready for Negan, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. As the leader of The Saviors, Negan is absolutely brutal, and within minutes of meeting him, he commits the two most horrific murders in the show's entire history. His character arc is fascinating, however, and it meant he lasted 95 episodes, right up until the end. 

Alanna Masterson (87 Episodes)

Tara Chambler, played by actress Alanna Masterson, starts out as a follower of the antagonist known as The Governor but soon realizes he's a bad person. During the attack on the prison by the survivors, Tara switches sides and ends up an important member of the survivors before she is attacked and killed in Season 9, after appearing in 87 episodes. 

Khary Payton (83 Episodes)

Khary Payton introduction as King Ezekiel in the seventh season was a big moment. Not only did was it a dramatic shot, with him sitting with his tiger, but it brought in a character that would become a key player over the next 83 episodes. 

Steven Yeun (81 Episodes)

The Walking Dead was famous for the brutal deaths of some of its most beloved characters and at the top of that list is Glenn's horrifying death at the hands of Nega in the Season 7 premiere. It was hard to stomach, and even harder to take, emotionally. Actor Steven Yeun's character was a fan favorite and after 81 episodes, suddenly he was gone. 

Cooper Andrews (81 Episodes)

Actor Cooper Andrews' character Jerry is the kind of character everyone loves. He's a bit of a goof, but dedicated and loyal to his people, and very capable. Though the character wasn't introduced until Season 8 and wasn't a main cast member until 10, Andrews still appeared in 81 episodes. 

Sonequa Martin-Green (70 Episodes)

Sasha, played by Sonequa Martin-Green, who appeared in 70 episodes was a character created for the show, rather than in the comic book from which The Walking Dead was adapted. Still, Sasha becomes an incredibly important character from Season 3 when we meet her until her heroic death at the end of Season 8.

Eleanor Matsuura (58 Episodes)

Eleanor Matsuura, who plays Yumiko, is a late joiner to the cast, not appearing until the 9th Season. Still, she proves her worth quickly and appears in almost every episode from there out, a total of 58. 

Nadia Hilker (56 Episodes)

One of the new characters introduced in Season 9 is Magna, played by actress Nadia Hilker. She's a tough customer who seemingly trusts very few people, and who can blame her after surviving the zombie apocalypse for as long as she has. She also survives the final battle in Alexandria at the of Season 11 and is seen living happily with her girlfriend, Yumiko, after 56 episodes on the show. 

Lauren Ridloff (56 Episodes)

Along with Magna and Yumiko, Lauren Ridloff's character Connie is a tough survivor who joined the show in Season 9. Like those characters Connie appears in most of the final three seasons, a total of 56 episodes. 

Callan McAuliffe (55 Episodes)

 Alden, played by Callan McAuliffe, was a member of the brutal Saviors when viewers met him, but he eventually switches sides and teams up with the Hilltop Community led by Maggie. In all, he ended up in most of the final shows in the final 4 seasons, a total of 55 episodes. 

Cassady McClincy Zhang (54 Episodes)

Lydia is a character who is quite different in the show than she is in the comics, mostly due to the changed story arc of her love interest in the books, Carl Grimes. In the show, she is introduced in Season 9 when she is taken captive by Michonne and Daryl. She ends the series alive, 54 episodes later. She was played by Cassady McClincy Zhang.

Cailey Fleming (53 Episodes)

The youngest member of the main cast was Cailey Fleming, who played the older Judith Grimes in seasons 10 and 11, a total of 53 episodes. Of course, the character appears in way more episodes going back to the very beginnings of the show, but for years, she was a baby, presumably played by different people and definitely not played by Fleming.

Lennie James (52 Episodes)

Morgan, played by Lennie James, is one of the earliest characters viewers meet in the show, though he remains an enigma and only occasionally appeared in the early days. James became a main character in Season 6, and in total appeared in 52 episodes over the first 8 seasons of the show before he leaves the group. The character became the protagonist in the first spinoff, Fear The Walking Dead. 

Emily Kinney (50 Episodes)

Emily Kinney played Beth Greene in 50 episodes of The Walking Dead. She was Herschel's daughter and Maggie's half-sister. She was introduced on the show when Rick and the rest of the survivors got to the Greene farm. Initially, Kinney had a much smaller role than those of her family members, but by Season 4 she had become a full-time cast member. It wasn't for long though, as Beth was killed by Dawn in one heck of a disastrous moment that also saw Daryl kill Dawn. 

Katelyn Nacon (50 Episodes)

The second-to-last episode of Season 10 of The Walking Dead is a brutal one. The mysterious character called Alpha proves to be a brutal baddie when it's revealed that her people, The Whispers, have killed a number of people, including Enid, played by Katelyn Nacon. Nacon portrayed Enid in 50 episodes, starting in Season 5. 

Tom Payne (45 Episodes)

The Hilltop Community becomes one of the most important settlements in the post-apocalyptic world and viewers of the show, and the core survivors, are introduced to it by Paul "Jesus" Rovia, who was played by Tom Payne for 45 episodes, starting in Season 7. Jesus is both a spy and an ambassador of sorts for the Hilltop folks, who ends up recruiting and fighting with Rick and the others against The Saviors. Sadly, he doesn't make it past Season 9 when he is killed by The Whisperers. 

Michael Cudlitz (38 Episodes)

What can we say about Abraham Ford? Played by the great Michael Cudlitz who first found major fame on TV as a member of the cast of Band of Brothers, Abraham was a fan favorite from the first time viewers met him in Season 4. That made his death in the Season 7 premiere, after starring in 38 Episodes, at the hands of Negan incredibly heartbreaking. 

Scott Wilson (38 Episodes)

Everyone loves their grandfather and in a way, that's who Scott Wilson's character Herschel Greene represented on the show. The patriarch of Maggie and Beth's family, Herschel is tough, he's fair, and he's righteous. Introduced on the farm in Season 2, Herschel is killed by The Governor in Season 4, after appearing in 38 episodes. 

Austin Amelio (36 Episodes)

Dwight, played by Austin Amelio, always seemed like a reluctant, if brutal, member of Negan's group, The Saviors. With his badly scarred face, he was a standout character for 36 episodes before Amelio left The Walking Dead to join the spinoff Fear The Walking Dead. 

Kerry Cahill (36 Episodes)

For a character that appeared in 36 Episodes of the show, Dianne, played by Kerry Cahill, is the least developed on this list. Cahill is first seen in The Kingdom, playing one of the community's best soldiers, a skill she later takes to the Hilltop Community. For the rest of the series, she is part of many battles, but we never learn too much about her. 

Sarah Wayne Callies (35 Episodes)

Sarah Wayne Callies plays Lori Grimes, Rick's wife, and mother to Carl and Judith. In the first three seasons, she's one of the most important characters on the show and gets herself stuck in a love triangle between Rick, whom she believed was dead, and Rick's best friend, Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal). During Season 3, Lori is forced to give birth to Judith via C-section, and without proper medical facilities, the procedure kills her in one of the hardest moments of the show to watch. In total, Callies appeared in 35 episodes.

Laurie Holden (35 Episodes)

Actor Laurie Holden is one of the original cast members of the show, playing Andrea from the earliest episodes. At the end of Season 2, she gets separated from the rest of the survivors at the farm and is saved by Michonne. Both end up at Woodbury with The Governor, who Andrea grows close to. Trusting him was a mistake as she is eventually taken prisoner by him which leads to her death at the hands of a walker towards the end of Season 3 after 35 appearances. 

If enough actors play the same superhero over the years, then fans will naturally have their personal favorites of the bunch. For example, when looking over the best Batman movies, some people still love Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne the most after all these years, while others are more partial to Christian Bale’s or Ben Affleck’s versions, and Robert Pattinson’s Caped Crusader has established a sizable fanbase over the last year. The same goes for Superman, and The Walking Dead actor Chandler Riggs explained to CinemaBlend why he holds Henry Cavill’s take on the Man of Steel in the highest regard.

Riggs voices Superman in the now-released animated movie Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One, which sees Kal-El/Clark Kent and hist Justice League not only being thrust into the world of Remnant from the RWBY web series, but also being mysteriously transformed back into teenagers. While chatting with the actor who brought Carl Grimes to life across eight seasons about his work on this DC movie, I asked him which is his favorite Superman and why, leading to him saying the following about Henry Cavill:

Chandler Riggs (who’d “love” to play The Flash next) was born on June 27, 1999, meaning Man of Steel came out just a few weeks shy of him turning 14, so it’s no wonder that Cavill’s Superman means so much to him. The Stardust and The Tudors alum’s debut as the popular DC Comics superhero arrived seven years after Brandon Routh led Superman Returns, and while Routh’s tenure only last that one movie (though he’d late reprise the role in The CW’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover event), Cavill went on to have prominent roles in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and both versions of Justice League, as well as cameoed in Black Adam’s mid-credits scene last year.

While Henry Cavill’s time as Superman drew controversy, particularly for the character killing General Zod in Man of Steel, the man himself has collected a lot of praise over the years for his performance. Riggs counts himself among this particular Superman fanbase, feeling that this take on the Kryptonian hero is the best at conveying the weight a powerful individual like him has to carry with protecting the innocent. Following Cavill’s brief appearance in Black Adam, it was originally announced that we would be seeing more of him in the red cape. However, just weeks later, that decision was overturned, and Cavill’s tenure as Superman ended in favor of rebooting the property with Superman: Legacy, which James Gunn is both directing and writing.

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One can be purchased from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment digitally and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray. Break out your HBO Max subscription if you’d like to stream other animated and live-action DC movies, or see what’s on the horizon with our guide of upcoming DC movies.

Though Chandler Riggs remains best known for his time playing Carl Grimes in The Walking Dead’s first eight seasons, now he has another claim to fame in the realm of comic book media. He can be heard voicing Superman in the animated DC movie Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One, but he doesn’t necessarily want his superhero run to end there. Riggs already has another DC character he’d “love” to play following his outing as the Man of Steel, and this one also moves quite fast.

While chatting with Chandler Riggs about his work on Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One (be sure to check out our exclusive clip from that), I was curious about if he had any interest in playing a different superhero role somewhere down the line, be it at DC or Marvel, in live-action or another voiceover gig. The actor enthusiastically shared he’d like a shot at bringing The Flash to life, saying:

Grant Gustin has been playing Barry Allen for almost 10 full years, having debuted as the character in the middle of Arrow Season 2, and then leading The Flash spinoff series starting in October 2014. That CW TV show is currently in the middle of its ninth and final season, and Gustin reflected on his time in the Arrowverse after he wrapped shooting in early March. While not the first actor to play Barry in live-action, Gustin’s portrayal certainly propelled the character to new heights of popularity, and Chandler Riggs has been along for that ride since the beginning, and even once expressed interest in appearing on The Flash.

With a Superman performance under his belt, the Walking Dead alum is interesting in giving The Flash a try, though he acknowledged he would face an uphill battle in delivering a performance that comes close to what Grant Gustin has done with the role. Let’s also not forget that Ezra Miller has been playing the DC Extended Universe’s Barry Allen since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and he’ll finally lead his own standalone Flash movie this summer. In fact, both these versions of Barry met each other a few years back during the “Crisis on Infinite Earths” event on The CW.

All this being said, at the time of this writing, it’s unclear if Ezra Miller will continue playing The Flash in the new DC Universe that DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran are constructing, with the Chapter One slate of movies and TV shows being referred to as “Gods and Monsters.” If a recast is on the table, then there’s a chance Chandler Riggs might have a chance to swoop in, whether it’s as Barry Allen, Wally West or some other take on the Scarlet Speedster. Should that happen, we’ll let you know, but for now, he can be heard as a version of Superman who, like his Justice League teammates, has somehow aged back to being a teenager and been mysteriously stranded in the world of Remnant from the web series RWBY.

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen, Part One can now be purchased from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment digitally and on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray. Use your HBO Max subscription to go through the DC movies in order, or look through our guide detailing upcoming DC movies. Missing Carl, Rick and Michonne? Here are all the upcoming Walking Dead TV shows and movies.

As The Walking Dead lurches forward towards the end of its eleven-season run, fans are still waiting for answers about what happened to Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes, while still pulling for Cailey Fleming’s Judith to make it through to hopefully reunite with both him and Danai Gurira’s Michonne. While it’s still completely unknown how any of that will pan out, considering the Rick-centered movie sitch still hasn’t come to fruition, the rest of the Grimes family recently came together off-screen for a lovely sort-of-a-reunion, and there’s thankfully some visual evidence!

For the Atlanta leg of the Fandemic Tour that took place from March 18-March 20, current Walking Dead star Cailey Fleming met up with former stars Chandler Riggs and Sarah Wayne Callies, marking one of the relatively few times that fans have been able to see Lori, Carl and Judith Grimes together in one place — and with everyone smiling, no less. Check out Callies’ Twitter post below!

Amusingly enough (or depressingly enough, depending on how you look at it), though these three actors are all members of the fictional Grimes family, they never actually shared the screen together as a trio. Furthermore, their characters shared only an extremely limited amount of time together, and that amounted to quite a tragic experience. So the pic above is by far the best case scenario for what a current-day Grimes family reunion could look like. 

As Walking Dead fans no doubt remember, Sarah Wayne Callies exited the show in Season 3 with Lori’s death, which was a result of some extremely bloody and irreversible complications from Judith’s birth within the prison. (Oh, that rascally prison.) So it was only in those moments following her birth that the family, sans both Rick and Judith’s biological father, spent any time together. Of course, it ended with Carl having to put Lori out of her misery in such a way that she wouldn’t return as a walker, so not exactly the happiest of times. Although not entirely the most unrelatable, given how terrible some family functions can be. Corral! Cawralll!

Between that point and Carl’s death five seasons later, Chandler Riggs and the rest of the cast worked with younger actresses for Judith, with Chloe Garcia-Frizzi being the most notable. She’d portrayed Judith in Season 8 when Carl, knowing that he was doomed for death, spent a final day of quality time with her, with their handprints on the porch boards serving as a sweet memory.

It was after Rick’s disappearance that the time jump happened and Cailey Fleming was brought into the fold as Judith Grimes. And to bring things back around to Rick’s movie(s), which I’m definitely hoping Judith will be part of, that project could very well become the one time in Walking Dead history that Andrew Lincoln could share the screen with Sarah Wayne Callies, Chandler Riggs and Fleming. (The Lori actress told CinemaBlend back in 2017 that she’d be willing to return if it made sense.) So here’s hoping it happens. Here’s hoping anything happens with those.

Catch new episodes of The Walking Dead on Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m., with the spring finale coming soon. Head to our 2022 TV premiere schedule to see everything else that’ll hit the small screen soon.

Since its debut on Halloween night in 2010, AMC's The Walking Dead has gone from an intimate adaptation of the Robert Kirkman's long-running comic book series to a massive cultural phenomenon thanks in part to the the rich storylines and the expansive cast that almost outnumbers the army of zombies that populate the show's landscape. And over the course of the show's first 10 seasons, many members of the cast like Andrew Lincoln, Danai Gurira, and Jon Bernthal have become gone from relatively unknown actors to massive stars.

But with a cast as large as the one on The Walking Dead there are bound to be a few that leave the show either because their characters' stories are finished or they want to move onto something else and further their careers. And even though we'll be seeing the return of Lauren Cohan's Maggie when Season 11 premieres, what about some of the other former members of the cast who left the series. What are they up to?

Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes)

Andrew Lincoln served as the anchor of the larger The Walking Dead cast with his portrayal of Rick Grimes for the show's first nine seasons, but the English actor and aggressive zip-up sweater wearing hopeless romantic in Love Actually had been planning on leaving the show as early as Season 8 but stayed on for one more season before leaving to spend more time with his family. Since leaving the AMC series, Lincoln has kept a relatively low profile, but he is set to appear in the upcoming drama Penguin Bloom where he will star alongside Naomi Watts. And despite no longer being on the show, Lincoln recently gave former co-star Danai Gurira a touching sendoff following her final episode. 

Speaking of The Walking Dead, we're still waiting for more news on those spinoff movies featuring the return of Rick Grimes.

Danai Gurira (Michonne)

It seems like it was just yesterday that Danai Gurira announced that she would be stepping away from her role of Michonne after Season 10 of The Walking Dead, explaining that she was being called to other things in her life during a panel at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con. Even before and since her departure, Gurira has remained quite busy balancing time as a hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as a hero in the real world as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, which she was named in December 2018. On top of that, the former The Walking Dead star is busy at work writing the upcoming HBO Max series Americanah, as well as Godzilla Vs. Kong, which is slated to come out in the November 2020.

Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh)

Jon Bernthal is one of those quietly amazing actors, and that was no different in his portrayal of Shane Walsh, Rick Grimes' former best friend-turned-enemy in the first two seasons of The Walking Dead. The role was suspected to be short-lived from the jump, but there are times when you can't help but miss the gravity Shane brought to many of the situations early on in the series. 

Since leaving the series, Bernthal has become one of the most prolific actors of our time with bit roles in a number of instant-classics as well as Frank Castle on the Netflix Marvel series Daredevil and Punisher. And with several upcoming projects including the TV adaptation of American Gigolo and The Many Saints Of Newark (the long-awaited prequel film to The Sopranos), it looks like we'll be seeing more of Bernthal for years to come.

Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes)

For three seasons on The Walking Dead, Sarah Wayne Callies portrayed Lori Grimes, but the character's fate when she sacrificed herself to give birth to Judith during a Cesarean section that ultimately took her life. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Callies stated that the character had to die in order to push Rick Grimes to the next level. After leaving the show, Callies went on to return to the Fox series Prison Break as well as the TNT drama Colony. The actress is currently on the NBC series The Council Of Dads, a series Callies told The Sioux City Journal stopped her from quitting acting altogether.

Laurie Holden (Andrea)

Laurie Holden was quite vocal about the death of her character Andrea in the Season 3 finale of The Walking Dead, the culmination of a storyline with the Governor the actress was not too fond of following her departure. Since leaving the show, Holden has remained quite busy both with her acting career (which most recently included television work on Proven Innocent and animated feature Arctic Dogs) and her work in charity and human rights work, including the Somaly Mam Foundation, Operation Underground Railroad, and Home From Home.

Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale Horvath)

Jeffrey DeMunn was one of the members of the original Atlanta crew in the first two seasons of The Walking Dead, but the actor asked to be killed off after Frank Darabont, the original showrunner, was pushed out of the production. DeMunn and Darabont have worked together multiple times over the years starting with the 1994 release of The Shawshank Redemption, so it should come as no surprise that the actor would leave in that fashion. Since leaving the show, DeMunn has remained busy in film and television, including the Showtime series Billions, where he currently plays Chuck Rhoades, Sr.

Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee)

There is no death on The Walking Dead more shocking and unsettling than the brutal murder of Steven Yeun's Glenn by the hands of the evil Negan. Like many of the characters in the series, their deaths were predetermined in the pages of the original comic series, and that's the case for Glenn, though Robert Kirkman shared with Entertainment Weekly that there were talks of keeping him around. Those talks never panned out, but Yeun has stayed busy with projects like Sorry To Bother You, Burning, and the upcoming A24 feature The Humans, where the actor will star alongside Jayne Houdyshell, Richard Jenkins, Beanie Feldstein, Amy Schumer, and June Squibb.

Michael Rooker (Merle Dixon)

Michael Rooker only appeared in 14 episodes of The Walking Dead, but his performance as Daryl Dixon's older and antagonistic brother Merle is one worth remembering. There was no saving Merle after he turned into a zombie at the end of Season 3, but the death of his character hasn't stopped Rooker from continuing his career in film and television. After leaving the series, Rooker became an even bigger star following his portrayal of Yondu in Guardians Of The Galaxy and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2., where he reunited with James Gunn. The partnership, which started with Slither, will continue when Rooker appears in Gunn's 2021 The Suicide Squad. And expect to see the actor enter the Fast And Furious franchise with the 2012 release of F9.

Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes)

One of the biggest shocks of Season 8 of The Walking Dead was the early departure of Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes from the series when Rick's son was bitten by a walker, ending his run in the process. Fans and stars of the show were equally as shocked by former showrunner Scott Gimple's choice of killing off one of the central characters, but no one took it as bad as Riggs' father who had some choice words for Gimple after his son was written off the show. In 2019, the former The Walking Dead star was cast as Patrick "PJ" Nelson on the ABC drama, A Million Little Things, which was renewed in March 2020.

Sonequa Martin-Green

Sonequa Martin-Green  originally auditioned for the role of Michonne in The Walking Dead. Though the part ended up going to Danai Gurira, Martin-Green snagged the part of Sasha. She recurred on the series in Season 3 and was bumped up to a series regular in The Walking Dead's fourth season. Like many of her other former cast-members, Martin-Green's character had a very memorable exit. After her departure from The Walking Dead, Martin-Green took a starring role in the CBS All Access series, Star Trek: Discovery. She's also expected to appear in Space Jam: A New Legacy in 2021.

David Morrissey (Philip "The Governor" Blake)

Before the introduction of Negan, there was no character more dastardly or deadly than David Morrissey's portrayal of Philip "The Governor" Blake" starting in Season 3 of The Walking Dead. Like many of the characters featured in both the comic and television series, The Governor suffered a violent death during the Season 4 midseason finale. Since leaving The Walking Dead, Morrissey has gone on to have roles in Inside No. 9, the Amazon series Good Omens, and the upcoming Dampyr adaptation.

Lennie James (Morgan Jones)

Morgan Jones, portrayed by the great Lennie James, was one of the first characters Rick Grimes meets in Season 1 of The Walking Dead, and the character showed up several more times over subsequent seasons before becoming a member of the main cast starting in Season 6. And despite dying in Season 8, Morgan had the rare distinction of showing up in the spinoff series Fear The Walking Dead, where James remains as a series regular. In addition to The Walking Dead universe, James has shown up in films like Blade Runner 2049 and the upcoming Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.

Those are just a few of former The Walking Dead stars that have gone on to continue their careers in film, television, and elsewhere in recent years. I'm sure whenever the show returns, we can expect to see more characters and actors on this list. If you want to know which former castmember hasn't watched the AMC series, you can check that out here on CinemaBlend.

One of the most successful comic book adaptations of all time is The Walking Dead. The AMC show, which Frank Darabont developed from Robert Kirkman's popular comic series chronicling humanity's struggle to survive a world overrun with reanimated corpses, has earned multiple Emmys, a Golden Globe nomination, and two spin-offs (so far) during its 10 (soon to be 11) season run.

For those who are not fans of the Image comic, it may be easy to forget that the series is a comic book adaptation, considering its tone and subject matter are far different from what "casual fans" are used to: superheroes. Of course, there is no room for superhuman, costumed vigilantes in an ongoing battle between humans and zombies (excluding a famous Marvel storyline in which that is exactly what happens), but it does give me an idea.

While alums Michael Rooker (Merle Dixon) and Danai Gurira (Michonne) have already graduated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with significant roles, as Guardians of the Galaxy's Yondu and Black Panther's Okoye respectively, the rest of the cast of The Walking Dead has yet to know what it is like to be a superhero. So, why don't we take a look at some of the show's current series regulars (and even a few old favorites) and imagine what heroes they would be perfect as.

Norman Reedus - The Punisher

Ironically, Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon was originally not meant to survive Season 1 of The Walking Dead. Which leaves us to wonder, had things gone according to plan with the unexpectedly popular character, if Reedus might have stolen his former co-star Jon Bernthal's chance to play Frank Castle on Netflix's Daredevil and his solo spin-off, The Punisher. From how he rocks a leather jacket, owns the road on his chopper, and his mastery of the stoic loner shtick as Daryl, Reedus embodies exactly who would imagine should play the widowed, vengeful war veteran in an MCU reboot... with all due respect and appreciation for Bernthal, of course.

Andrew Lincoln - Blackhawk

He may have left the show in 2018 but, until then, Andrew Lincoln was the heart and soul of The Walking Dead as former cop Rick Grimes: a man who, when his head was in the right place, showed great leadership, made especially commendable by Lincoln's performance. Thus, I believe he would be the perfect choice to lead an adaptation of the DC comic Blackhawk, which follows a squadron of World War II-era fighter pilots which Steven Spielberg has been reportedly working on. However, I would recommend he update it to the present day, so that Andrew Lincoln can play the current leader of the Blackhawk Program, whose name is... Andrew Lincoln.

Melissa McBride - Zealot

Carol Peletier is not one bit the person she was in Season 1 of The Walking Dead, having evolved from a meek, desperate mother into a fearless, fully capable, and even ruthless warrior, as Melissa McBride has played her. Lady Zannah, better known as Zealot, did not become the fierce warrior from the planet Khera that she is known as today, but was skilled in weaponry and expert martial arts long before she became stranded on Earth and joined the WildC.A.T.S. in a war against Daemonites (while this DC property was still exclusively an Image character). Not only does McBride look the part, but has demonstrated how she can be the part on The Walking Dead for years.

Christian Serratos - Zatanna

Going from playing Ned's crush Susie Crabgrass on Nickelodeon's Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide to playing a badass soldier on The Walking Dead Christian Serratos pulled off one of the coolest magic tricks in TV history by exhibiting a stunning range of versatility. Magic is actually a specialty of Zatanna Zatara, the DC character I think she would be a spot-on choice to play. She may not have same combative expertise as Rosita Espinosa, but as a member of Justice League Dark, Zatanna has had her fair share of monstrous enemies.

Josh McDermitt - Forbush Man

Something you may not know about Josh McDermitt, who plays Eugene Porter (a The Walking Dead survivor who lied his way to ensure his own protection) is that he got his start in stand-up comedy, even if his moments of comic relief on the series make that less surprising. While the actor has proven his dramatic chops on the show as well, I think the actor would do well by playing a superhero that reflects his roots and one of the funniest characters known to the Marvel Universe is Forbush Man, known for his failed attempts to be in superhero organizations like the Revengers, S.H.E.E.S.H., and the Echhs-Men. So, yes, this cast-iron helmet wearing, fourth wall-breaking "crimefighter" is really more of a superhero parody, but that is a pretty hot concept right now, after all.

Steven Yeun - Kamen Rider

Steven Yeun is actually going to be in a recently announced new series based on the Robert Kirkman superhero comic Invincible... but as an animated character, not live-action as I was personally hoping to see the Korean-born actor, best known as pizza deliverer turned expert Walker fighter Glenn Rhee for the first six season of The Walking Dead, portray a new comic book character. One superhero who, despite his influence, is not very well known to American audiences is Kamen Rider, a crimefighting motorcyclist dressed as an insect created by Japanese manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. I think that if anybody can sell the idea of an English-language adaptation of this overseas cult sensation, it's Yeun.

Lauren Cohan - She-Hulk

It has been proven that a performer can smoothly transcend comic book universes (Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck Laurence Fishburne) and British actress Lauren Cohan has already been in two, from playing Maggie Greene (whom Glenn would eventually, unofficially, marry) in The Walking Dead and Martha Wayne (Batman's mom) in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. So, why not go for the trifecta and join the MCU as a character whom plenty of Marvel fans have recommended her for already: Jennifer Walters (better known as She-Hulk). The green superhero goddess' solo Disney+ series has yet to be cast at this moment so, if the producers of TWD can write in a few reasons for Maggie to be absent a little more often after Cohan returns to the role, I think she has this in the bag.

Chandler Riggs - Red Robin

The first person you usually think of when you think of Batman's sidekick is Dick Grayson (the first Robin, after all), but then there are also those who have enjoyed Jason Todd or Damian Wayne in the costume, but Tim Drake may be the least appreciated, as far as I can tell. A The Walking Dead character whom I believe was under-appreciated for much of his time on the series was Rick Grimes' son, Carl, the role that actor Chandler Riggs grew up playing. Therefore, putting the actor, now 20, in the role of Tim Drake's current alias, Red Robin, seems like a match made in Heaven to me.

Sonequa Martin-Green - The Crimson Avenger

I do quite miss Sonequa Martin-Green as Sasha on The Walking Dead, for her resilience, complexity, and stunning skills behind a firearm. With how well she brought that character to life, I think the actress (who currently plays Commander Michael Burnham on Star Trek: Discovery) qualifies profoundly to play Jill Carlyle, a lawyer who, when coming across a pair of cursed pistols, becomes the latest to bear the title of deadly vigilante The Crimson Avenger.

Ross Marquand - Booster Gold

Yet another The Walking Dead alum who has joined the MCU is Ross Marquand... just not to be superhero, but to use his extraordinary talent of impersonation to fill the role of Red Skull (originated by Hugo Weaving) in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. So, instead of convincing Marvel to give him double duty, I recommend he try out for the other team as a relatively overlooked DC superhero named Booster Gold. While playing the attention-seeking, time traveling Justice League member, who debuted in the 1980s, would be a far cry from his TWD character Aaron, if you look at everything else the actor has done (including voice roles on Seth MacFarlane series), that's just what he may be looking for.

Alanna Masterson - Sage

You think you can call yourself an expert of all X-Men characters just by having seen every movie? Well, think again because one very cool and complex mutant named Sage, who is just as skilled in telepathy as she is in computer hacking, piloting, and martial arts, has only been depicted onscreen in Fox's short-lived spin-off series The Gifted. I believe that the MCU should some day give Sage a new home on the silver screen and I recommend Alanna Masterson because, like Sage, her The Walking Dead character, Tara Chambler, was a headstrong individual who could invoke a hostile personality as a defense mechanism if need be.

Seth Gilliam - Green Lantern

If you are like me, you grew up with the John Stewart incarnation of Green Lantern, who was brought to life on the acclaimed animated series Justice League in 2003. Also, if you are like me, you are probably hoping that Stewart gets to be the star of future films about the organization of intergalactic cops equipped with rings that allow them to fight evil with whatever their imagination conjures. If you saw the side by side photo above with Seth Gilliam (preacher Gabriel Stokes from The Walking Dead) next to an animated shot of John Stewart, I think it speaks for itself why he has a good shot at the role.

Jeffrey Dean Morgan - Batman

I know, you know, and even Jeffrey Dean Morgan himself knows that this is the correct answer for which superhero the actor, whose most memorably comic book role to date is the despicable Negan, should play. Ever since he appeared alongside The Walking Dead co-star Lauren Cohan as the parents to young Bruce Wayne in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, fans have theorized for years that Morgan would reprise the role of Thomas Wayne in a film based on the Flashpoint storyline, which imagines an alternate world in which Bruce died that fateful day, leaving Martha to go crazy and become the Joker and Thomas taking on the identity of The Batman. The actor has said he is down for the role, if it ever happens, that is.

What do you think? Are these superheroes perfect for The Walking Dead clan, or do you think I'm dead in the brain to imagine such character choices? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check back for more updates on the popular horror show as well as more hypothetical casting sessions here on CinemaBlend.

How will The Walking Dead TV series end? When will it end? It doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon, but Carl Grimes actor Chandler Riggs shared a theory on how he thinks AMC will put the show to bed.

The Walking Dead Season 10 is currently airing, and Season 11 has already been renewed, with Lauren Cohan returning as Maggie. The Powers That Be have talked about continuing the franchise well into the future, alongside spinoffs like Fear the Walking Dead, Walking Dead: World Beyond, and Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes movies.

Carl Grimes was killed off The Walking Dead in a Season 8 shocker Chandler Riggs famously did not see coming. But he remained a fan of Robert Kirkman's comic books and was pumped about what last year's big Rick Grimes twist could've meant for Carl as the comics' new protagonist. He also said he'd love to be in Andy Lincoln's Grimes movies.

When it comes to the TV show, Chandler Riggs kept his mind mixing the series with the comics with his speculation on how The Walking Dead will end on AMC. Here's what he recently told a Wizard World Cleveland 2020 panel when asked about Rick Grimes' future, seguing into how he sees everything ending:

The Walking Dead TV show has been "remixing" the comic book story since the beginning, and recent seasons have diverged in serious ways. But he may be right about CRM vs. the Commonwealth as the final battle, we'll see. The CRM group is still mysterious on TV but has been teased on both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead. The Commonwealth is a massive community with a big role in the comic book that we should be spending a lot more time with on the TV show pretty soon.

Meanwhile, The Walking Dead comic book writer Robert Kirkman shocked everyone last summer by abruptly ending his series. SPOILER ALERT for the comics. In the penultimate issue, he killed off Rick Grimes. In the final issue, there was a huge time jump decades into the future, ending with adult Carl and his wife Sophia and their daughter Andrea. Carl ends the series in a rocking chair with his daughter, telling her the story of his father Rick Grimes.

Scott Gimple said The Walking Dead still plans to adapt the comics finale, but acknowledged it would be a challenge without the death of Rick Grimes. We don't know yet how Rick's story will play out in the movies. However, the TV show already killed off Carl Grimes, not to mention Sophia, so any "remix" of the finale would have to substitute several characters. Maybe Judith takes on the role of Carl Grimes, with Daryl Dixon as the new Rick? Now I'm the one just speculating.

The Walking Dead has taken a massive ratings hit in the past couple of seasons -- blame Negan -- but the franchise seems to keep expanding. Nothing lasts forever, though, so WHEN and HOW do you think The Walking Dead will end?

The Walking Dead Season 10 continues Sundays at 9 p.m. before taking its usual summer break and returning for Season 11 to start in October 2020.

During his eight seasons on The Walking Dead, Chandler Riggs evolved both as an actor and as a human being, going from ages 10 to 18 in that span. That means a lot of his formative years were spent listening to a bunch of grown adults hollering the name "Carl" a lot, and that has to take its toll on a person. Especially when those grown adults can't quite say "Carl" with any sort of pronunciation consistency.

To that end, Chandler Riggs was likely in a very particular circle of Hell when he stumbled across a viral video on Twitter that's basically a supercut of Walking Dead characters saying his character's name in every way imaginable. It's a pretty short video, but it was enough to spark a hilarious reaction from the actor, as seen below.

In all fairness, I can't imagine that Chandler Riggs was the only person calling out to religious figures in order to make the video stop. Not even TWD's Jesus could help. Sure, just clicking out of that tweet could have done it, but once a video like that gets going, it becomes exponentially harder to stop with each second that passes. And blessed be the viewer who allows the video to cycle through again after the first viewing; they will be the ones to tell the world how many times one can hear "Caw-ral!" before a mental break.

The clip is only 30 seconds long, but still manages to pack a lifetime's worth of "Carl" declarations within. Of course, the craziest thing about it is that the video only incorporates footage from the first two seasons of The Walking Dead, when Carl still has both eyes and a squeak in his voice (and before Shane had his own mental break). Which means that this footage doesn't even reach the point at the prison in Season 3 that cemented Andrew Lincoln's "Coral" within the show's subculture.

As well, there are still another five and a half seasons of his name being called by Negan, Rick, Michonne, Enid, and many other characters. That doesn't even account for the times people talked about Carl after Chandler Riggs controversially left the show.

Luckily for Chandler Riggs, his first big post-Walking Dead TV role was on ABC's emotional drama A Million Little Things, where his character's name was PJ, which is very hard to mispronounce in the same way as Carl. Granted, Riggs hasn't shown up on A Million Little Lies yet after the midseason hiatus, but he was recently seen doing press along with the show's main stars, so here's hoping PJ will return after having found more inner peace.

Fans can take comfort in knowing there's a slight chance Chandler Riggs could return to the Walking Dead universe by way of a flashback sequence in AMC's upcoming Rick Grimes features. (Assuming they still happen, that is.)

Of all the big and popular ensemble casts on TV, perhaps none have changed with the frequency and emotional trauma of The Walking Dead, which doesn't go a single season without at least one game-changing death or character exit. To be expected, not every former Walking Dead actor left the show in the same way as everyone else.

Below, we've rounded up all the major Walking Dead cast member exits from the past ten years, noting the reasons why each one had to go. Sometimes it's about the plot, sometimes it's about things that are completely outside The Walking Dead's influence, but it always affects the drama. Let's kick things off with the future-Punisher himself.

Jon Bernthal (Shane Walsh)

In fighting for the role of Rick Grimes' friend-turned-enemy Shane Walsh, actor Jon Bernthal knew that the character's Walking Dead shelf-life was limited. In fact, Robert Kirkman has stated that Shane's Season 2 death was planned even before the series' first episode was shot, and that the shocker would have happened in Season 1 if it had lasted for double its six-episode length.

While it wasn't exactly a cause-and-effect case, Jon Bernthal's exit on The Walking Dead was also somewhat expected by savvy TV viewers, since the actor had been announced as a lead in TWD co-creator Frank Darabont's cable drama Mob City, which only lasted for one season. Since The Walking Dead, Bernthal has portrayed an even more prominent comic book character for Netflix's The Punisher, which had its own controversial exit.

Lauren Cohan (Maggie Rhee)

Having joined The Walking Dead back in Season 2, Lauren Cohan quickly started crushing it when bringing the comic book's Maggie Greene to life, especially as the character's development expanded over the years. Cohan's exit in Season 9 was no doubt overshadowed somewhat by Andrew Lincoln's Rick situation, but it was recently revealed that she will be returning as a series regular in Season 11, and might even show up sooner.

Lauren Cohan made the decision to leave The Walking Dead in Season 9, having landed a starring role on the ABC drama Whiskey Cavalier. That gig coincided with publicized disputes between Cohan and execs over contract negotiations, but there don't appear to be any long-lasting hard feelings, considering her impending return. Unfortunately for Cohan and ABC and everyone who worked on Whiskey Cavalier, that genre-bending series earned lower-than-expected ratings, leading the network to cancel it, then offer up hope, and then cancel it again. But hey, more Maggie!

Sarah Wayne Callies (Lori Grimes)

As The Walking Dead's leading female character Lori Grimes, Prison Break vet Sarah Wayne Callies wasn't exactly a fan favorite during those first three seasons, and so it wasn't exactly a debilitating drawback for viewers when she was written out of the show in Season 3. That said, her death was indeed a gut-wrenching and gross one, as she succumbed to a prison-set C-section while giving birth to Judith.

Lori Grimes did indeed die in Robert Kirkman's comic book, although it happened differently there (and involved the infant Judith's death). This wasn't an instance where the actor had anything negative to say about getting killed off, though, as Sarah Wayne Callies went into the season saying that she also believed that Lori had to be killed off in order to provoke Rick's emotional downfall.

Chad Coleman (Tyreese Williams)

A fan-favorite character in both the comics and the TV show, Tyreese anchored completely different stories across the two mediums, entering the TV show much later in the timeline than the original version. (Comic Tyreese shows up in in issue #7, right after Shane dies.) The late introduction could have afforded Chad Coleman's Tyreese an extended stay on the AMC drama, but he was killed off as the back half of Season 5 started. Here's how Coleman said then-showrunner Scott Gimple explained killing Tyreese off:

Lots of other characters beyond Tyreese could have invoked similar feelings without having to lose Chad Coleman's peacekeeping, if unsettled, character. As cool as the various cameos were during the sequence, the manner in which it happened – he was bitten while on a side trek to find Noah's "of course they're dead" parents – didn't help win the death any points with fans. Thankfully, Coleman has kept his genre-heavy career up with shows like Arrow, The Expanse, and the now-on-Hulu The Orville, and while he quit watching The Walking Dead in recent years, he'd be down for a properly crafted return.

Lennie James (Morgan Jones)

Though he only appeared in a handful of episodes across The Walking Dead's first five seasons, Lennie James' Morgan Jones was nonetheless a hugely important element in the live-action universe, due in part to the character's larger presence in the comic book series. (And also due to James' excellence as an actor, of course.) Morgan's comic book existence came to an end long before Negan's introduction, so the character was seemingly living on borrowed time as soon as James became a series regular in Season 6.

But The Walking Dead's Powers That Be made a particularly rare move in removing Lennie James' Morgan from The Walking Dead not by killing the character off, but by making him the first living being to jump between the flagship series and the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead. James has been a part of Fear the Walking Dead for two full seasons now, though that show's most recent season finale's cliffhanger ending threw his future into question.

Laurie Holden (Andrea)

Though Laurie Holden's performance as The Walking Dead's Andrea was solid and well-regarded by fans, the character was unfortunately distanced from her comic book counterpart. She unfortunately got written into a hole in Season 3 as the Governor's lover – against all possible common sense – and the decision was made to kill her off in the finale. Robert Kirkman claimed there was a lot of back-and-forth talk between the writers about Andrea's fate, with the decision to kill her coming late in the game.

Laurie Holden stated she only found out about being written off less than a week before the episode filmed, and has later come out and claimed that the fan backlash over her Season 3 arc and death are what led to then-showrunner Glen Mazzara having to step down. Holden, who went on to have arcs in The Americans and Proven Innocent, also later called Andrea and the Governor's story "utter nonsense."

Scott Wilson (Hershel Greene)

A Hollywood great going back to the 1960s, Scott Wilson landed the Walking Dead role of Hershel Greene for Season 2's farm introduction. By the time of his decapitation in Season 4, he'd become one of the most sage members of Team Family, as well as one of its most tragic survivors. (The writers decided to forego an earlier decision to kill him off all the way back in Season 2, and fans were all the better for it.)

Scott Wilson, who went on to take roles in Bosch and Netflix's recently cancelled drama The OA, did not seem to have an issue with being killed off of the show, either, since he returned both for Robot Chicken's Walking Dead special and for the Season 9 Walking Dead episode that served as Rick's final installment. Sadly, he passed away in October 2018.

Tom Payne (Paul "Jesus" Rovia)

The Walking Dead's Jesus maintained a long stint as a fan favorite within the comic book series, and actor Tom Payne quickly won over TV viewers with his take on the ass-whooping protagonist. Unfortunately for most parties, TV Jesus didn't get to fully take on all of the original version's claims to fame, with the signature armor and hairstyle coming for Payne only in the end. Also, Comic Jesus never died in the first place.

Why The Walking Dead's Big Midseason Finale Death Didn't Really Bother The Star

TV Jesus did, though, and Tom Payne told CinemaBlend that he was a bit tired of the role's limitations in recent seasons, and that he felt the creative team saw where he was coming from. Which isn't to say that's the precise reason why Jesus was chosen to be the first of the Whisperers' victims in Season 9, before he could even start his comic relationship with Aaron, but it could be in the same foggy, forested ballpark. Luckily for the actor and his fanbase, Payne rather quickly scooped up the co-lead role on Fox's Prodigal Son, replacing the previously cast Finn Jones. Payne's Jesus appeared for the final time in a flashback for Episode 11.

David Morrissey (Philip "The Governor" Blake)

U.K. great David Morrissey joined The Walking Dead as the comic's most deadly villain at that point in the story, The Governor. Throughout Season 3's introduction to the Woodbury community, The Governor was a beast of a villainous leader whose past inspired the most reluctant kind of empathy. The Walking Dead's creative team unfortunately decided to introduce the prison flu side-narrative to open Season 4, and Morrissey only appeared in three more episodes before getting killed off in the midseason finale.

For all the respect he's given the show, the actor was possibly bothered somewhat by getting sidelined ahead of The Governor's death, especially since the villain was responsible for the heinous act of killing off Scott Glenn's Hershel. Still, Morrissey holds his Governor up as The Walking Dead's greatest villain, and he did make a final appearance in Season 5, as part of Tyreese's pre-death hallucinations, before joining other projects such as Britannia and Marvel's upcoming Black Widow feature.

Emily Kinney (Beth Greene)

After being a second-tier character in Seasons 2 and 3, Emily Kinney's Beth got developed more in the back half of Season 4 after Hershel died and she became a close companion for Daryl. Beth and Daryl became one of the biggest positive-minded topics within the fanbase, so it was that much larger of a gut-punch whenever The Walking Dead made her MIA for a short while and then killed her off in the Season 5 winter finale. Yes, there were backlashes.

Emily Kinney was having a blast on The Walking Dead, but it seems like the creative team specifically made her more prominent just to make her eventual death that much more memorable. Certainly not an unheard of move on this show or others, and it was helped by Beth not being a comic-sourced character. Still, the actress' exit was weakened somewhat by the lackluster Grady Memorial Hospital group. Kinney later returned in audio form for Rick's Season 9 exit, and has been seen since that 2015 death as a Flash villain, as a Conviction lead, and she's got the upcoming Netflix drama Messiah. (She no longer watches The Walking Dead, though.)

Steven Yeun (Glenn Rhee)

Until Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes got nearly killed off and taken away by helicopter, it seemed like no Walking Dead exit could ever top Negan murdering Steven Yeun's Glenn. The gory massacre was preceded by arguably The Walking Dead's most widely criticized creative choice, Glenn's dumpster-loving fake-out death, and concluded the rage-inducing cliffhanger that limited the TV show's promotional push for its full summer hiatus. It didn't help that the scene previous death made it seem like Glenn was safe. According to creator Robert Kirkman, discussions were had about how to keep Yeun's Glenn around:

Despite taking its visual cues from the comics, the savagery of Negan's actions in the Season 7 premiere turned a lot of fans away from The Walking Dead. The move also sparked some interesting reactions from Steven Yeun himself, who was of the opinion that the show's writers often didn't know what to do with Glenn as a character. Like others seen here, Yeun stopped watching the show at some point, and likely wouldn't be interested in returning to the role.

Michael Cudlitz (Abraham Ford)

An actor that seemed genetically created to take on the role of The Walking Dead's Abraham Ford, Michael Cudlitz's time on the TV show largely lined up with the comics for the character's earliest days. Cudlitz's Abraham lived beyond the comic version's death, which surprisingly went to Merritt Wever's Denise on TV, but Scott Gimple & Co. had Abraham join Glenn as Negan's big victims to kick off Season 7. It's something Cudlitz got more critical recently, saying:

When appearing on Talking Dead after the Season 7 premiere, Michael Cudlitz talked about initially surviving beyond Comic Abraham's death, and thinking he might have a future, considering he was getting closer with Sasha and working out some of his own demons. That clearly didn't happen, though. Cudlitz has found work outside of the Dead-verse, such as on the short-lived comedy The Kids Are Alright, but he now has three different Walking Dead episodes under his belt as a director, with more likely to come.

Corey Hawkins (Heath)

This entry is unique for this list, since Corey Hawkins didn't ever reach series regular status on The Walking Dead during his truncated stint. However, his character Heath was a big deal in the comics for nearly two-thirds of the issues, so he likely would have been, had Hawkins' career not exploded right around the time he got cast.

As Walking Dead fans started getting excited about Heath in live-action, Straight Outta Compton earned $200 million+ at the box office. Because Corey Hawkins only recurred as Heath, he didn't have to shy away from other roles, and he'd landed both Kong: Skull Island and Fox's short-lived 24: Legacy by the early days of 2016, sealing Heath's fate. Appearing in only four Season 6 installments, Hawkins returned for a single Season 7 episode, and inexplicably disappeared. Years after the fact, Walking Dead franchise overseer Scott Gimple confirmed that Heath plays into the helicopter trading system that Jadis is/was part of, so he still might show up again in the Rick Grimes movies. Unless some other project he has gets huge around that time.

Chandler Riggs (Carl Grimes)

As one of the TV show's biggest deviations from the Walking Dead comic book, Carl's doomed Season 8 fate was a major jaw-dropper. (Though it didn't help things that the character's death was stretched across the winter finale and spring premiere.) It turns out audiences weren't the only ones blindsided by the news of Carl's walker bite, either, as Riggs and his family were taken aback by then-showrunner Scott Gimple's narrative choices, as were some co-stars.

In the months ahead of Carl's death, Chandler Riggs had apparently purchased a house in Senoia, Georgia near The Walking Dead's filming locations, just in case anyone had any doubts about the actor's assumptions about his future on the show. Riggs said at the time that he was put in a bit of a pickle by the fiasco, and his dad also had some choice words for Scott Gimple. Riggs recently purchased a new house in Hollywood, though, having landed a role on ABC's A Million Little Things. Here's hoping he gets more foreknowledge about his fate on that show.

Sonequa Martin-Green (Sasha Williams)

While her onscreen lover Abraham took a bloody dive after being crushed by Lucille, Sonequa Martin-Green's Sasha took matters into her own hands. Rather than living as Negan's emotionally wrought prisoner, Sasha poisoned herself, with an end goal of surprise-attacking the villain after turning into a walker.

In real life, Sonequa Martin-Green also took the lead on her career path by securing the lead role in CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery, which necessarily meant she would need to step back as a Walking Dead lead. Which, of course, led to her character's exit, though Martin-Green made a peaceful return for Rick's final episode, similar to how Michael Cudlitz came back for Sasha's final ep. The actress is still going strong in Star Trek's universe, with Discovery set for Season 3 in 2020.

Austin Amelio (Dwight)

In joining The Walking Dead as the redemption-minded Dwight, Austin Amelio knew he was in for long hours in the makeup chair, given the character's facial burn scars. The actor also likely thought he was in it for the long haul, since Dwight's survival went on until fairly late in the comic book's narrative. So it was probably a huge surprise when Amelio got word from producers that his character was exiled by the Alexandria community and wouldn't be returning to The Walking Dead for the time-jumping Season 9.

Fans wondered what happened to Dwight after the All Out War between Team Family and the Saviors, and there wasn't a very straightforward definition given to explain why Austin Amelio wasn't around anymore. (Beyond the in-show goal of trying to find his wife Sherry.) That same set of fans was pleasingly shocked to discover that the Walking Dead universe wasn't done with Dwight yet, and Amelio joined Lennie James on the Fear the Walking Dead cast for Season 5. It's still not very clear why The Walking Dead completely changed up the character's comic storyline for TV, but it kept things refreshing for Fear's core ensemble.

Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes)

For years, Rick Grimes seemed like the most impossible-to-kill character in both the Walking Dead comic and TV universes, so when the news broke that Andrew Lincoln would be leaving The Walking Dead in Season 9, fan reactions were heightened across the board. The emotional backlash was somewhat sated by the news that there would be a trio of Rick Grimes feature films, but it was still a major blow to the show, which has continued falling in the ratings despite higher critical acclaim under showrunner Angela Kang.

The reason for Andrew Lincoln's departure didn't come from up high, but from the actor himself, who had initially intended to bow out of the show in Season 8. The way Lincoln explained things, he aimed to spend more time with his growing family in and around their U.K. home without being obligated to spend so many months out of the year filming The Walking Dead in Georgia. However, he also wanted to make sure Rick's story got a worthwhile conclusion, and his apprehension over exiting urged him to stick around for the first chunk of Season 9. Still no sign of when those Rick movies are happening, though.

Pollyanna McIntosh (Jadis)

Jadis, or Anne, has been one of The Walking Dead's most prominent original-for-TV characters in recent years, and Pollyanna McIntosh's word-mincing junkyard dweller developed a faithful fanbase that was rocked by her final episode in Season 9. Jadis not only took the franchise-crossing helicopter storyline to new heights (literally) in that episode, but she also saved Rick after his bridge sacrifice.

Because Jadis' self-imposed exit didn't involve her death, and because it was revealed Pollyanna McIntosh would also be a part of the Rick Grimes movies, not a lot of information has been shared about the specific reasons why the creative team went that way with Jadis' story. McIntosh has kept pretty busy while waiting for those Walking Dead films, though; she directed her first feature, the Jack Ketchum adaptation Darlin', and also starred in the second (and final) season of AMC's extremely unique Lodge 49.

Alanna Masterson and Katelyn Nacon (Tara Chambers and Enid)

Alanna Masterson's Tara and Katelyn Nacon's Enid weren't the most comparable survivors, to be sure, but the characters met such similar fates that it felt proper enough to group them together to cap this list off. Tara's journey from Governor-follower to Hilltop leader was an important one, as was Enid's rise from depressed orphan to a dependable and intelligent quasi-doctor, but both of them met severely dark fates in Season 9 (along with a bunch of other characters) as victims of Alpha's big fair massacre.

Executive producer and frequent episode director Greg Nicotero explained around that episode's airing why the creative team decided to kill off Tara and Enid.

Katelyn Nacon claimed that The Walking Dead's showrunner Angela Kang had alerted her of the possibility that Enid might not survive Season 9, but it wasn't until the week before the death episode went into production that the actress got the final word. Similarly, Alanna Masterson says she only learned of Tara's death in the days before the penultimate episode started filming. While Masterson has yet to land a regular gig outside of The Walking Dead, Nacon was recently in Season 2 of Hulu's Light as a Feather.

There's no doubt that even more Walking Dead stars will be vacating the show before it wraps up its extended run at AMC (which might not technically happen for at least another decade, depending on how network execs continue feeling about the show's drooping ratings in recent years. Until then, though, keep tuning into the zombie drama every Sunday night on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET.

It’s hard to believe that Chandler Riggs’ Carl Grimes has been out of The Walking Dead universe since the end of Season 8. The show is heading into Season 10 and we’ve lost so much in the time since. But fans who have stuck with the show – and characters like Rick and Carl – from the beginning will soon be rewarded with a theatrical release starring Rick.

Could that mean Chandler Riggs will somehow come into play in the big screen release too? He’s currently heading to ABC’s A Million Little Things, but if you ask the actor, he would very much want to appear in the Rick-centric TWD film. Here’s what he said:

Speaking to TV Guide, Chandler Riggs expressed interest with working with “Andy,” who just so happens to be Andrew Lincoln. Lincoln played Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead well into Season 9. Although his character is no longer on the series, he will be the star of the upcoming -- and still untitled -- movie based on the popular series.

Still, while Chandler Riggs seems keen, a return from Carl Grimes could be a bit problematic, to say the least. Although we didn’t see Carl commit suicide on the small screen, he did come into contact with a walker and was heard shooting himself in the head so as not to reanimate. We later saw Carl get buried and there’s a grave. So the idea that a present-day tale could incorporate Carl is slim.

Unlike Rick, Carl shouldn’t still be around in The Walking Dead universe, but that doesn't factor out a possibility such as a flashback. Still, we don’t know much about where the new movie will be going or when it will be released. However, Norman Reedus has said he hopes for a reunion between Rick and Daryl on the show, noting "the family" has always been a key part of the universe and that it would make sense to bring the two characters back together in the new movie. A few weeks ago, we also learned that The Walking Dead movie will be getting a theatrical release.

Related: Could Negan Get A Walking Dead Movie Next?

As for Chandler Riggs, whether or not the AMC movie decides to bring in Carl Grimes in any way, shape or form, the younger actor is sitting pretty in Hollywood. He recently landed a gig in the aforementioned A Million Little Things, where he will play a young man who has a connection with Rome. Currently, he's only expected to have a two-episode arc on the show, and we can't wait to see how the episodes pan out. He's also expected to appear in the crime thriller Inherit the Viper.

As for The Walking Dead show, the AMC drama is currently prepping for its tenth season, which will also be the final season for Danai Gurira, who tearfully confirmed her upcoming exit at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year. Season 10 of The Walking Dead will hit AMC on Sunday, October 6 at 9 p.m. ET. For more premieres, take a look at CinemaBlend's fall TV schedule.

The Walking Dead has deviated from Robert Kirkman's comic book so much at this point, the two are only connected through big picture framework. Season 10 is now filming for an October premiere on AMC, with the world very much changed after the massive time jump events of Season 9.

Ross Marquand plays Aaron, whom we met as a recruiter from Alexandria in The Walking Dead Season 5. Aaron is a character straight out of the comics, but his TV story has changed a bit over time as well. Marquand was recently on the podcast of new Walking Dead co-star Dan Fogler, who plays Luke, a member of Magna's group introduced in Season 9.

While Ross Marquand and Dan Fogler were talking about the show and the comics, Fogler revealed he had recently picked up the final issue of The Walking Dead comic. That very spoilery conversation led to Marquand wishing the AMC still had its two main Grimes characters:

Yes, it was a shock to The Walking Dead fans -- and Carl Grimes actor Chandler Riggs himself -- to lose Carl in Season 8. That shock was followed by more shock and confusion when it was revealed that Andrew Lincoln would be leaving in Season 9. The Walking Dead without both Rick and Carl Grimes? Sheesh. Is that even The Walking Dead?

Not to get too spoilery on the comics, but both Rick and Carl are alive up until the final two issues. Then something very unexpected happens to one of them, and the other is forced to handle it.

Ross Marquand told Dan Fogler on Fogler's 4d Xperience podcast that he is a big fan of The Walking Dead comics and always compares them to the show. Marquand said he read the comics right up until Glenn died, then stopped 'cause he figured he was learning too much about what was to come. As an actor on the show, there's only so much he wanted to have in his head in advance. However, he added this note about former Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs:

Dan Fogler said he was just happy to see Luke survive The Walking Dead Season 9 since, in the comic book, Luke was one of the heads Alpha put on pikes. So now he has no idea what might be to come for Luke and that makes it exciting.

The Walking Dead is not done with Rick Grimes, since we know he'll be getting his AMC movies. The Walking Dead also plans to continue for a while, despite the comic book series now finished. The Walking Dead Season 10 should reveal its first trailer during San Diego Comic-Con, per tradition, with the premiere expected in October 2019. Here's everything we know so far about the 2019-2020 season.

Spoilers ahead for the Walking Dead comic series through issue #192.

The Walking Dead on AMC may be on hiatus for now, but the comic series is still going courtesy of Robert Kirkman. In the latest issue, Kirkman delivered a game-changing twist that few fans probably believed was actually going to happen, despite the events of the previous installment. Issue #192 killed off Rick Grimes. While that's obviously a bummer for comics fans who were invested in Rick's story after all this time, Walking Dead show veteran Chandler Riggs is pumped about what it means for Carl. Take a look:

"Holy shit" just about sums up a lot of reactions to issue #192 killing off the protagonist who has been driving the comic action since 2003, but Chandler Riggs' tweet points out a silver lining to the big death. The death of Rick means Carl can rise as the new lead character, and seeing Carl's story without even the possibility of Rick turning up is something readers haven't gotten before.

It's also something that The Walking Dead show fans will never get to see thanks to the Season 8 shocker that saw Carl killed off after a zombie bite to his midsection. It was a twist that went unspoiled despite a history of leaks from the Walking Dead set (thanks to Chandler Riggs' efforts to preserve the secret), and it went totally against the comics. Carl was one character fans had every reason to think would be safe until the very end; his death was arguably the most impactful of the entire series to date.

Of course, Rick is no longer in the mix on The Walking Dead either. Andrew Lincoln's decision to depart the show as leading man broke last summer, before Season 9 even premiered. The concept of a Walking Dead without Rick seemed to guarantee that he would be killed off. After all, it's not like Rick would willingly leave his family behind, and where would he even go?

Well, the show found a way to write out Andrew Lincoln as the series lead without killing him off, and Lincoln actually has a bright future in the franchise thanks to at least one spinoff movie.

Interestingly, the franchise is branching out just as the ratings have been dipping lower and lower, so it should be interesting to see what happens next, especially since Chandler Riggs can't exactly come back to encourage Carl fans to tune back in. Even flashback odds aren't too high, since Riggs is outgrowing teenage Carl as he was last seen.

If you're in the mood for some zombie apocalypse action without waiting for new issues of the comic series or the Season 10 premiere, you can catch new episodes of Fear the Walking Dead on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.

You know what? It was one year ago today -- February 25, 2018 -- that Carl Grimes died in The Walking Dead episode "Honor." Season 9 is currently airing, including a six-year time jump, giving us a seriously badass young Judith Grimes. Their mother, Lori Grimes, died after giving birth to Judith in Season 3. The three Grimes family stars gathered for a family photo (sans Rick ... and Shane) during the 2019 Walker Stalker Cruise:

They really did do a good job with the casting! Chandler Riggs as Carl, Sarah Wayne Callies as Lori, and Cailey Fleming as Judith do look like they could be related. Now, where is Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes? Also, they should add Jon Bernthal as Shane, since he's basically acknowledged as Judith's real daddy.

In November, showrunner Angela Kang told Insider why they cast Cailey Fleming as the now roughly 10-year-old Judith Grimes:

Judith Grimes is not quite the last Grimes standing, since it was revealed in the time jump that Michonne gave birth to a son, RJ. Rick Grimes has yet to meet his son, but we as viewers know Papa Grimes is not dead, he's just on a new adventure that we'll follow when Andrew Lincoln gets his films up and running.

Carl Grimes' death was a big shock for The Walking Dead TV show, since Carl continued to have a major storyline in the comic book, especially in the current Whisperers arc. Without him, Carl's story seems to have shifted on TV to (ugh) Henry, but also to the new hat-wearing-sheriff in town, Judith. It's exciting to think of what her future might hold.

Seeing three Grimes family members together made some Walking Dead fans a bit misty-eyed. Lori never really got to meet Judith. Her dying words were for her son Carl. Do you remember this scene?

Every person in that scene is now gone, except the baby. Lori. Carl. Rick. Maggie. We may see Maggie again next season, and Rick has his own movies coming. And baby Judith is now truly a Little Ass-Kicker.

Carl barely got to know Judith either. He loved her -- and he's the one who suggested her name -- but he died when she was still about 4. Do you think she remembers much about him? Hopefully nothing happens to Judith and RJ moving forward and they can grow up as close siblings (along with little Gracie, who was adopted by Aaron).

The Walking Dead Season 9 continues Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC, as one of the many shows airing in the 2019 midseason.

The Walking Dead returned to AMC for the back half of Season 9 this past weekend, with the surviving characters realizing they're up against an entirely new threat with the Whisperers. Before any shocking moments could make it to air, though, Chandler Riggs' father William Riggs took to social media and put former Walking Dead showrunner on blast, alleging that Gimple had initially lied to them about the show's true intentions for Carl Grimes. Here's what the Riggs family supposedly thought was happening.

Most of what was said there sounds like what was already public knowledge around the same time. As a matter of fact, whenever Chandler Riggs got accepted to UGA, the announcement had some fans up in arms that it meant the actor would be leaving the AMC series in order to focus more on school. That belief, however, ran counter to the reveals that Riggs was adding more permanence to his time in Georgie for the Walking Dead production shoots, so it was unclear back then just how things were playing out.

If William Riggs is to be believed, however, then it looks like everything took a downward turn in the weeks just prior to Chandler Riggs' 18th birthday, in June 2017. Even though all of that preparation had reportedly been made to keep the teen near the Georgia sets, Scott Gimple apparently had other ideas in mind. Here's how the elder Riggs put it in a post on his Facebook page.

William Riggs went on to cay that after he'd shared his thoughts and opinions on the matter after it was revealed that Carl was being killed off, AMC allegedly contacted him and asked him to remove his post. He also says he declined taking a story with TMZ, stating that he doesn't want to be in the middle of this story (that he himself is publicizing again).

Around the time when it became clear that Chandler Riggs would be written off the show, things did seem a little murky between the actor and the show's execs, though no one was publicly saying anything to support ill motivations being behind Carl's death. (I mean, William Riggs did say quite a bit, even in posts that weren't requested to be taken down.)

As just about every Walking Dead fan knows at this point, Season 8 was Scott Gimple's last season as the series' showrunner. He was promoted to oversee the growth of the entire Walking Dead franchise even beyond the AMC series, while longtime writer Angela Kang took over the showrunning duties. Under her guidance, the zombie drama has had more emotional and contemplative heft, and it's rather easy to picture a reality where Carl was still alive in Kang's narratives.

As William Riggs put it, he's very grateful for the years that Chandler got to be a part of the large Walking Dead ensemble. However, he thinks that all those years on the show had earned the young actor more transparent treatment from the producers.

Next up, Chandler Riggs will be heading to ABC for a stint on the hit new drama A Million Little Things, which should be a completely different experience from that which he went through on Walking Dead. While waiting to see what he'll look like without his signature hat and eyepatch, our midseason premiere schedule will point to all the biggest show and returning shows on the way.

UPDATE: A couple of days after this report, an update clarified that Danai Gurira is leaving The Walking Dead, but she'll still be part of a few episodes in Season 10, and she'll probably join Andrew Lincoln's three Walking Dead movies.

Original post:

How many lead characters can The Walking Dead lose before it becomes a spinoff of itself? At this point, no one is saying Danai Gurira is done as Michonne at the end of Season 9. However, AMC just officially renewed the show for Season 10, and there are details on the swanky new details for Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon) and Melissa McBride (Carol Peletier), but no word on what's happening with Danai Gurira.

Actually, the most recent word on Danai Gurira is that she was in prolonged negotiations with AMC that were complicated by having movie hits like Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War under her belt, with Godzilla vs. Kong coming in 2020.

Basically, it sounds like she wants them to show her the money for upping her value as talent. Fair enough. That's the business.

But will AMC go for it, considering the money it's already throwing at Norman Reedus to take over Andrew Lincoln's (Rick Grimes) spot as the top name on The Walking Dead?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Norman Reedus is now contracted to make $350,000 per episode of The Walking Dead, on top of additional guarantees and advances. His deal is estimated to be anywhere from $50 million to $90 million, which is a pretty huge spectrum, but also just a pretty huge paycheck at either end.

Melissa McBride will now make an estimated $20 million over three years. Both McBride and Norman Reedus have been series regulars since Season 2, when they were said to have made $8,500 an episode. So this will be a huge upgrade for them. Their deals are also said to be groundbreaking because they cover the entire expanding Walking Dead universe -- including possible appearances in spinoffs, new series, digital shorts, etc.

The Walking Dead already has a "companion show" spinoff in Fear the Walking Dead, but former TWD showrunner Scott M. Gimple is now working on an expanded universe of other projects. This is all happening while the main flagship show continues to lose viewers and ratings -- but also continues to be the top show on Sunday nights.

Norman Reedus and Melissa McBride are the last OGs remaining on the show, having started in The Walking Dead Season 1. TWD recently took a huge hit on the originals front, with the departures of Chandler Riggs (whose character Carl Grimes was killed off in a shocking move) and Andrew Lincoln (whose Rick Grimes is still alive out there, and getting his own film series).

Is Danai Gurira signing on for an extended cross-universe contract like that too? Considering The Walking Dead traditionally goes into pre-production on new seasons in April and starts filming in early May, the clock is ticking on figuring out her contract.

The Walking Dead ended filming for Season 9 toward the end of 2018. In November, AMC programming president David Madden had told The Hollywood Reporter the Danai Gurira contract situation was in flux:

The Andy he mentioned is obviously Andrew Lincoln, and if that's a real "lesson" David Madden took away from his exit, then that's unfortunate. Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes didn't even really leave the Walking Dead universe, he just left the show he was leading to make some standalone movies that will show up at some point.

At any rate, that quote from the AMC boss to THR was from November 2018. It doesn't sound like much progress has been made, or at least no updates have been shared publicly. Danai Gurira played coy with THR at the Season 9 premiere in September, when asked how much longer she saw herself on the show. All she said was, "I can't share that at the moment." Gulp?

The character of Michonne first arrived as a cameo at the very end of Season 2, and Danai Gurira became a regular in Season 3. She now has a key storyline in the time jump of Season 9, showing how she has changed since the death of Carl and disappearance of Rick.

Michonne is now mother to a boy named Rick Jr, aka RJ, a son that Rick Sr. has yet to meet. She's also taking care of Rick's (Shane's) daughter Judith, who has become a badass on her own, taking over for some of Carl's comic book storyline.

This would be an awful time to lose Michonne -- after the recent (to us, if not the timeline) death of Carl Grimes, the disappearance of Rick Grimes, and the MIA status of Maggie Greene-Rhee.

Lauren Cohan (Maggie) started on the show in The Walking Dead Season 2 but left this past season in what may be a temporary move, depending on the success or failure of her new ABC series Whiskey Cavalier. It sounds like she could return in Season 10, depending on how things go.

Maybe Danai Gurira could do something similar -- take a break from The Walking Dead to pursue other projects, then return later. That could fit with a certain comic book storyline, but her character on TV has changed so much (and now has kids to care for) so it might be a stretch to explain why Michonne is also suddenly gone.

The Walking Dead Season 9 has already finished filming, but we the viewers have only seen half of it at this point. It's possible we'll be losing more major (or just minor) characters later this season. The show returns this Sunday, February 10 at 9 p.m. on AMC with the Whisperers story kicking into high gear. Check out what else is airing on TV in the 2019 midseason.

Some of the juiciest drama happens behind-the-scenes of TV shows. Offhand, you can probably think of any number of actors/actresses from Downton Abbey to Game of Thrones and beyond with shocking exits. Sometimes the actors leave under let's say cloudy conditions, and other times it's the showrunners who create controversy with the writing of the exit. It's kind of amazing to think that we've had so many such departures just in the past five years. This list only scratches the surface -- starting with the exit that should be coming up next...

George Eads, MacGyver

George Eads is leaving MacGyver, with the show setting up an exit for his character Jack Dalton in the Friday, February 1 episode. Eads reportedly had an on-set altercation of some kind back in October and subsequently stormed off the Atlanta set. When he returned, he asked to be released from his contract, reportedly due to a desire to spend time with his daughter in Los Angeles. Eads also left a different CBS show under similar circumstances. He left CSI after 15 seasons, one season after an on-set problem with one of the writers. It seemed like he might quit, but he took a leave of absence and came back for another season before being written off.

Clayne Crawford, Lethal Weapon

Clayne Crawford's departure from Lethal Weapon was ugly from every angle. He was cut from the show before Season 3 due to alleged misconduct. The show decided to kill off Martin Riggs and give Damon Wayans' Roger Murtaugh a new partner. Some of Crawford's bad behavior was caught on camera, including clashes with Wayans, who didn't come across so good himself. In one instance, Crawford had a meltdown over filming scenes at an L.A. area pool. After that, he agreed to undergo counseling. Ultimately, his character was killed off and -- after a time jump -- Seann William Scott stepped in as the new co-lead Season 3. In late 2018, Wayans said he planned to leave the show after Season 3, but that may not be the case anymore. Then again, Fox has yet to renew the show for a Season 4, so it may be a moot point.

Thomas Gibson, Criminal Minds

Thomas Gibson's character Aaron Hotchner was written off Criminal Minds after the actor had an on-set altercation during production on Season 12. Gibson was directing an episode and had a heated incident with the episode's writer, allegedly kicking at him. He was fired. Hotch, a main character of the show, was written to have taken a consulting job off screen. Later, that was said to be a ruse, and he went into witness protection to get away from Mr. Scratch. Hotch could've returned to the BAU later, but fans were told that he decided to retire and be a full-time parent to Jack. It's not clear if Hotch will return for the Criminal Minds finale. That wasn't the first time something like that had happened; in 2010, Gibson allegedly pushed an assistant director, and had to take anger management counseling.

Danny Masterson, The Ranch

Danny Masterson was fired from Netflix's The Ranch during filming for Season 3, after five women came forward with rape allegations. His character, Rooster, appeared to leave town at the end of Part 5. But that wasn't the end of his story. When Part 6 premiered, Beau Bennett (Sam Elliott) got a call that Rooster's motorcycle was found at the bottom of a cliff. Apparently he went into a curve too fast, his brakes locked up, and he went over the guardrail. Rooster's body wasn't found, but he was presumed dead, and the family held a memorial for him. So they killed Rooster off, but also left the door open for the character. Danny Masterson asked fans to keep supporting The Ranch, even with Rooster "MIA."

Roseanne Barr, Roseanne

Roseanne had a hugely popular revival Season 10 when it returned in 2018. But Roseanne Barr has never been shy with her opinions, and she took a tweet a step too far for ABC. Since it was Roseanne's show, with her name on it, when ABC wanted to fire Barr after a racist tweet, the network decided to cancel the entire show. ABC boss Channing Dungey called Roseanne's tweet about Valerie Jarrett "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values." The rest of the Roseanne cast, who were basically collateral damage in the drama, returned for a spinoff called The Conners.

Kevin Spacey, House of Cards

Kevin Spacey's personal house of cards came crashing down after Star Trek: Discovery and Rent star Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of trying to have sex with him when Rapp was just 14 years old. After that, several members of the House of Cards also came forward with stories about Spacey's alleged misconduct. Netflix decide to cut ties with Spacey, and cut him out of the final Season 6 entirely. Robin Wright's President Claire Underwood was instead the lead of the shortened final season. The show killed off Frank Underwood, and also buried the character somewhere he would never want to be. Spacey later revived his character for a bizarre holiday video called "Let Me Be Frank."

Erinn Hayes, Kevin Can Wait

This casting drama started when it was announced that Kevin James' former King of Queens co-star Leah Remini would be joining Kevin Can Wait full-time in Season 2. That news was followed by reports that Erinn Hayes was fired after Season 1. The show decided to kill off her character, Donna, wife of Kevin's lead character. That allowed Season 2 to focus on Kevin's relationship with Remini's Vanessa Cellucci. The change didn't sit well with fans, and Hayes didn't seem to be happy with it either. CBS decided to cancel the whole show after Season 2 anyway.

Connie Britton, Nashville

It was a huge shock to Nashville fans when Rayna James died due to injuries from a car crash. It seemed like Rayna was going to be fine ... until she wasn't. Fans were devastated. What was Nashville without Rayna James? Connie Britton said leaving was her decision. She felt it was time to exit Nashville after it found a new home at CMT for Season 5. But the show continued for another season on CMT, and Britton even brought back Rayna back in the finale for two scenes -- a flashback and the big musical number at the end.

Sophia Bush, Chicago P.D.

Sophia Bush left Chicago P.D. after playing Det. Erin Lindsay for four seasons. She was tight-lipped about her reasons at first, and only opened up more over time, talking about her unhappiness on the set. Bush said (via TVLine) that she experienced "a consistent onslaught barrage of abusive behavior." She said producers initially dismissed her complaints, and they even seemed irritated that she was asking them to investigate negative conditions on set. She gave them notice that if things didn't change by the end of Season 4, she'd quit. She threatened to sue the network and write an op-ed on why she was unhappy, but NBC ultimately allowed her an early exit from her seven-season contract.

T.J. Miller, Silicon Valley

T.J. Miller's Erlich Bachman was one of the main characters of HBO's Silicon Valley. When Miller announced he'd be leaving the show after Season 4 wrapped, plenty of reasons flew around as to why. Initially, Miller said he wanted to do more things like The Emoji Movie and have time to develop animated features. After that, more stories started coming out about his allegedly unprofessional behavior on set. He also reportedly didn't get along with star Thomas Middleditch. The more that came out, the more toxic and mutual the departure sounded.

Stana Katic, Castle

Stana Katic played co-lead Kate Beckett on Castle, so it was baffling to fans to hear she'd be leaving after Season 8 -- and not by her own choice. Nathan Fillion's contract was renewed, and he and some of the other stars were ready to return for Season 9. But how could Castle continue without Beckett? Rumors flew as to what happened, from recycled talk of tension between Katic and Fillion to discussion of various contracts. There was huge fan outcry, and ABC ultimately decided just to end the show with Season 8. Two different endings were filmed -- one with a cliffhanger if Season 9 had happened, and the happy ending that fans got to see. But the behind-the-scenes drama toward the end of the show's run was still fresh to fans, and soured the happy ending a bit.

Josh Charles, The Good Wife

So much of The Good Wife was the love story between Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) and Will Gardner (Josh Charles). So it was a massive shock to see Will gunned down inside a courtroom in Season 5, Episode 15. Will was dead. Josh Charles had wanted to leave the show, and the creators wrote an open letter to fans to try and justify the end of Will's story. Charles' exit wasn't even the only dramatic one for the legal show. You may have heard about the rumored tension between Margulies and Archie Panjabi, who played Kalinda Sharma. When Panjabi left in Season 6, the show filmed a final scene for best friends Alicia and Kalinda. But there was speculation that the stars filmed their respective sides of the scene separately.

Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy

Grey's Anatomy is now in Season 15 but fans are still pissed about Derek's death. There was already behind-the-scenes drama suggesting Patrick Dempsey would be leaving the show, but the way they wrote out his character in Season 11 was just brutal. Derek had stopped to help some people in a car accident, and ended up hit himself. He was rushed to a hospital, but not Grey Sloan, and his doctor made a mistake that ended up in Derek's death. Shonda Rhimes defended the decision to kill off Derek, saying it was better than having him just disappear on Meredith Grey. At least this preserved their love story. Some fans said they would stop watching after Derek's death. Even some current viewers still don't want Mer to be with anyone else.

Columbus Short, Scandal

Columbus Short brought his own scandal to Scandal. He played Harrison Wright on the first three seasons, but confirmed he wouldn't return for Season 4. Harrison was ultimately killed in the Season 3 finale. Short opened up later about the personal drama that led to his departure, saying, "I'll be candid. I was struggling with drugs. I had a lot on my plate, and you know, I was using unhealthy ways to kind of self-medicate and deal with a lot of heavy duty stuff in my life." He was jailed after getting into a fight in a restaurant, and his wife filed for divorce following a misdemeanor spousal battery charge. Short said Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes and the cast knew about his drug and alcohol problems and tried to protect him and hold him down. "And that was one of the real reasons – they just wanted me to get my stuff together."

Chandler Riggs, The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead loves a shocking exit, but if there was any character that seemed safe, it was Carl Grimes. Chandler Riggs apparently though he'd be safe for a while too, so it was shocking for him as well as fans when Carl was killed off halfway through Season 8. Riggs said it was "devastating" for him and his family, especially since he had just bought a house in the Atlanta area where Walking Dead films. Riggs' father also spoke out on social media, slamming showrunner Scott M. Gimple for firing Chandler two weeks before the actor's 18th birthday, despite telling him they wanted him on the show for the next three years. The very next season, the show's main star, Andrew Lincoln, also exited the show -- although this time it was by choice, and AMC didn't kill off Rick Grimes, the network is giving him his own set of films.

Those are just a few of the controversial departures from the past few years. There are more -- and many more if we went back even further in time. At this point, we've just started the second month of 2019, but it will surely add more names to the list. That's the way of the TV biz. For now, keep up on everything airing with our handy midseason 2019 schedule.

For eight seasons, Walking Dead fans watched as Carl Grimes grew from a squeaky-voiced kid to a selfless and hardened teenager who wasn't afraid of making sacrifices for others. Star Chandler Riggs had to vacate the role in Season 8 when Carl was shockingly killed off, and hadn't landed any major TV roles in the meantime. That's now changed, though, with Riggs signing on to join the hit ABC freshman drama A Million Little Things.

Chandler Riggs won’t be making a permanent stop when he arrives on A Million Little Things, and has currently only been tapped for a two-episode arc. That, of course, could certainly change, assuming his character doesn’t get killed off by being blown to smithereens. This is a show, after all, that could easily drop a non-death twist on fans, with some viewers wondering if Jon’s own suicide will somehow be reversed in the future.

When he shows up on A Million Little Things, Chandler Riggs won't be handling big guns and rocking an eyepatch. Instead, he will be portraying a young man named PJ, as confirmed by ABC. PJ is set for a chance encounter with Rome, and the two characters will discover they have quite a bit in common. As an example, both men have gone through some especially dark times that led them to be who they are.

Both Rome and PJ will be highly impacted in various ways by their meeting, although neither one of them will be quick about realizing how meaningful it was. That’s an interesting detail to note within PJ’s character description, since it’s not clear how the conversation (assuming it’s just a conversation) will end up affecting their lives in the bigger picture.

One way to ramp things up, of course, would be to have PJ serving as someone important linked to Rome’s past, or the backstories of any of the other main characters. PJ could be holding onto some major secret tied to Jon or Delilah, or more likely to the newly introduced Barbara Morgan, and possibly Ashley. I suppose those reveals wouldn’t exactly make Rome the best person for PJ to make a connection with, but it’s certainly plausible that PJ could get Rome to introduce him to the others in the group.

Maybe, just maybe, Chandler Riggs’ introduction won’t quite be so conspiratorial in nature. However, this is A Million Little Things, where viewers have conditioned themselves to take little for granted, and that each character has roughly 17,000 secrets being guarded away from other characters. So I’d probably be more shocked if PJ ended up truly being a random stranger without any pressing reveals to drop on Rome’s plate. (Maybe he’ll pretend to be Lawrence Kasdan and will invite Rome to dinner, which would be a bizarre callback.)

Even though he’s been a gigantic TV star ever since 2010, when he was just ten years old, Chandler Riggs has never starred in any other live-action shows beyond The Walking Dead. He’d been in a TV movie called The Wronged Man back in 2010, and he also voiced a stop-motion Carl Grimes for The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who’s Walking, which was quite hilarious.

Riggs has appeared in a couple of films over the years, 2014’s Mercy and 2017’s Keep Watching. It seemed like he might have continued developing his big screen career, what with upcoming roles in the crime thriller Inherit the Viper and the sci-fi thriller Only. He's also talked publicly about having tried out for Spider-Man and losing it to Tom Holland, something that still bums him out.

However, Chandler Riggs' Million Little Things casting implies that he’s more than comfortable finding more work on the medium that turned him into a household name. That name, of course, is “Coral.” Here's hoping AMC finds a way to bring him back somehow for the upcoming Rick Grimes standalone movies or any of the many other projects that are on the way.

A Million Little Things now airs every Thursday night on ABC at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what other exciting new additions are coming to primetime in the near future, head to our midseason TV premiere schedule.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going strong for a decade, and is showing no signs of slowing down. As Phase Three began with Captain America: Civil War, a few new characters were introduced that would quickly become fan favorites: Black Panther and Spider-Man. The latter is played by Tom Holland, but the role was up for grabs once Sony gave Marvel Studios rights to the character.

One of the many actors who went in for the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man was The Walking Dead alumnus Chandler Riggs. Riggs recently retired his role as Carl Grimes, and has been open about going out for the role of the web slinger. Riggs recently revealed he's still disappointed about the casting, saying:

The kid's got a point. What is cooler than becoming a Marvel Cinematic Universe right after graduating high school? Alas, Tom Holland got the role, and has already become one of the most beloved figures in the massive cinematic universe.

Chandler Riggs' comments come from his recent appearance at San Jose Fan Fest (via Comic Book), and show how the young actor would have loved to play Peter Parker in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Disney cast a wide net to find the perfect actor, and Tom Holland's casting has widely been seen as a massive victory for the overall franchise. Unfortunately, this came at the cost of other actors' dreams.

When Disney was searching for the newest version of Peter Parker, the pressure was on. Two other Spider-Man franchises have already hit theaters, with Andrew Garfield's tenure ending only a few years ago. Ultimately, Disney decided to break new ground with a younger actor, allowing Peter to read like a realistic high school student. Chandler Riggs was one of those actors, but Tom Holland ultimately won the role-- with a little help from Chris Hemsworth himself.

In his same appearance, Chandler Riggs praised Tom Holland's performance as Spider-Man, saying:

What a class act. Chandler Riggs might be bummed about not playing Peter Parker, but he can see how great Tom Holland's characterization of the role was. Then again, the 19 year-old actor also revealed that he waited a while to actually sit down and watch Spider-Man: Homecoming. But given how life-changing landing the role would have been, who can blame him?

Tom Holland's Spider-Man will return to the MCU when Avengers: Endgame arrives in theaters on April 26th, 2019. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your trips to the movies in the New Year.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's latest episode, in which Rick Grimes said bye-bye.

When "What Comes After" hit its end credits, The Walking Dead had left viewers in a massively confused state. Not only was Rick Grimes still alive, but the six-year time jump revealed his legacy has been extended thanks to the badass evolution of Judith Grimes. Also confusing was the glaring absence of Chandler Riggs' Carl and Sarah Wayne Callies' Lori, but showrunner Angela Kang said leaving them out was intentionally part of the plan. Here's how she explained it:

Hearing Angela Kang say that does help to dilute some of the curiosity tied to the show not bringing in the characters that Rick knew and loved the most through those earliest years. Rick needed the kind of inspiring hallucinations that would light a fire under his ass, even if they also happened to be pretty dark and depressing.

If Rick would have stumbled back into the West Georgia Correctional Facility at some point in the episode, and found Carl and Lori sitting together in the same spot where Lori died, that might have destroyed viewers. Especially if he would have feasibly found mental peace in their presence, leaving him to stop fighting to stay alive.

Angela Kang also told The Huffington Post that it was important for Rick to come upon people that weren't his actual biological or legal family members, so that he could fully realize that he was truly one with everyone else.

All things considered, it would have been pretty messed up had Rick chosen to welcome death after dreaming about Lori and Carl. Not to insult them or anything, but Rick had been living for a long while without Carl, and even longer without Lori. So I can't imagine fans heaping praise on the character had he mentally brushed aside Michonne and Judith and the rest to find peace with his deceased family members.

For all that fans didn't get to see Sarah Wayne Callies' Lori, her voice did indeed get used during the emotional episode. Of the various voices heard saying, "What's your wound?" Lori's was the one the came in just before Rick caught up with Shane. So at least that was threre to drive him forward, and it wasn't even on the end of a broken telephone.

Sarah Wayne Callies had previously told CinemaBlend she'd be up for returning to The Walking Dead under the right circumstances. While Rick's final episode may not have made the cut, it's certainly possible that Lori and Carl could both factor into either Rick's standalone movies on AMC, or in one of the myriad spinoffs and specials that are being planned.

The Walking Dead is taking viewers into its future timeline during the next three episodes ahead of the hiatus, so be sure to tune in every Sunday night on AMC at 9:00 p.m. The entirety of fall TV will certainly have something to offer viewers needing more to watch when The Walking Dead goes on hiatus.

One of the biggest TV moments of 2018 so far was definitely the zombie-caused demise of The Walking Dead's Carl Grimes, who became the show's latest comic-thwarting death. Fans of former star Chandler Riggs have been anxiously waiting for the young actor to get involved with another major franchise, with many clamoring for him to become the new face of a superhero property. And if he had his pick of the bunch, Riggs says he would be down to get on board with The CW's Arrow-verse as part of The Flash.

Chandler Riggs expressed his interest in some DC franchise action as part of the Walking Dead panel for the Fandemic Tour 2018 in Sacramento. And when moderator Clare Kramer brought up that there is room for him on The Flash, he quickly responded with:

Now, we all know that it takes a lot more than just a random fan-fest declaration to bring to life a TV gig of that capacity, and since The Flash writers are already in the thick of putting Season 5 together, Chandler Riggs doesn't have a very good shot of landing a series regular role right out of the gate. That said, The Flash's plethora of villains allows for a bunch of different (and usually interesting) casting choices to be made each year, as temporary as they may be. So it's neither an impossibility nor an implausibility that the show's producers could bring Riggs in as a one-off meta, or even as someone more substantial.

The Arrow-verse is losing Wally West going into the new seasons, with The Flash's premiere being his last episode for the near future. But Wally was fully part of the Legends of Tomorrow squad earlier this year, so his absence doesn't create much of a void on the Scarlet Speedster's show. Plus, the core squad of Team Flash members added Cecile and Ralph as full-time members for Season 5, thanks to the respective actors getting series regular promotions. The same goes for Nora West-Allen, the former Mystery Girl whose time travel antics will fuel the Season 5 storyline. But there is always room for more characters that look remarkably like Chandler Riggs!

Even before his Walking Dead future had been figured out, Chandler Riggs had auditioned for Spider-Man: Homecoming, though nothing became of that, obviously, with Tom Holland winning the role. But even with his music career and his film career growing in Carl Grimes' shadow, Riggs still seems like he's destined for another huge role in the near future. And hey, The Flash definitely welcomes big stars from other mega-franchises, such as Harry Potter vet Tom Felton, who had a large enough presence in Season 3.

With or without Chandler Riggs in the mix, The Flash Season 5 will debut on The CW on Tuesday, October 9, at 8:00 p.m. ET. Check out the rest of The CW's fall schedule, and head to our summer premiere schedule to see the rest of what primetime has to offer.

Andrew Lincoln's exit on The Walking Dead is the biggest news to come from the series ever since Chandler Riggs' departure, so it's only fitting fans are curious as to what Riggs thinks of his TV dad exiting the show. Riggs recently commented on Lincoln's exit during an interview and admitted he was just as shocked as everyone else by the news, but at the same time understands why the actor made the decision:

Chandler Riggs sounded happy for Andrew Lincoln moving on from The Walking Dead and mentioned how good it would be for the actor to get home and back to his family. Lincoln, who married his wife Gael Anderson back in 2006, has been working on The Walking Dead since 2010 and making the trip back and forth between London to see his family. Riggs can likely appreciate having extra time for family, as Season 9 marks the first season he hasn't had to block out a large chunk of his time for the show.

Chandler Riggs could only offer his opinion on Andrew Lincoln's exit, as the actor told Good Morning Sacremento he had not spoken to Lincoln since the announcement. In fact, Riggs stated that it's been a good while since he's talked to his former co-star, who seemed to have kept his secret about leaving from quite a few people who are involved in The Walking Dead. Riggs said this about whether or not he'd spoken to his former TV dad about the decision to leave the show:

Fans of The Walking Dead may be devastated to hear Chandler Riggs and Andrew Lincoln aren't sending each other texts on the daily, although it's completely understandable they haven't talked as much now that Carl is out of the series. Hopefully, the two do link up eventually though so the world can like and share the hell out of whatever Instagram photo the two take in the midst of their reunion. Any publicist that may be responsible for something like that take note: a picture of the two scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef would be optimal. After all, who wouldn't' want to see Rick Grimes surrounded by coral?

The Walking Dead will be airing Rick Grimes' exit on AMC sometime this fall. Fans who need something to watch to take their minds off of how far away that feels at the moment should hop on over to our summer premiere guide.

Way back before Tom Holland landed his career-changing role as the Spider-Man of the MCU, dozens upon dozens of young actors filled audition rooms hoping to be the lucky one to land the part. The search was exhaustive and while the role eventually went with the really good choice of Holland, plenty of other promising actors had their names in the hat. One of these people was Chandler Riggs, who is perhaps better known as Carl from The Walking Dead. Riggs recently re-confirmed that he had auditioned for the role and doesn't seem too broken up about how things turned out.

Chandler Riggs' days as Carl on The Walking Dead may be over, but his conference appearances will never end. During an audience Q&A at Walker Stalker Con in Nashville, Tennessee (via ComicBook), Riggs was asked what Marvel superhero he'd want to play. The actor has a bit more free time on his hands now that his character has been killed off the long-running zombie show, so is he interested in nailing an extensive blockbuster contract? He didn't really have an answer as to what specific character he'd want, but he already did try his hand at Spider-Man. Obviously, that went to Tumblr's favorite crush Tom Holland, and Riggs doesn't seem to have any hard feelings over it. Rejection is the life of an actor!

Chandler Riggs wasn't the only actor who auditioned for the part of Spider-Man after the character was rebooted following Amazing Spider-Man 2. Asa Butterfield, Charlie Plummer, and Mathew Lintz were all reportedly frontrunners for the part alongside Tom Holland. Due to the specific circumstances involving this version of the character finally joining the MCU, this audition race got a ton of media attention, but in the end, Holland came out the winner. Now it's hard to picture anyone else in the role.

Apparently, Riggs also tried out for the role of young Han Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story, which was itself an exhaustive search to find just the right actor. It might be a good thing Riggs didn't get that one (not many people can compare to Harrison Ford in his prime), but it looks like the actor is interested in pursuing all opportunities that come his way.

Chandler Riggs may yet get to play a superhero or blockbuster role yet, but in the meantime, you can still see Spider-Man in action in Avengers: Infinity War, in theaters right now.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been a doozy. While the first half of the season was chock full of action and crazy gunfights, the midseason premiere ushered in a back half that is decidedly more emotional and character driven. Looming above the entire series is the recent death of Chandler Riggs' Carl Grimes, who was on The Walking Dead since its very first episode. The midseason finale revealed Carl had suffered a walker bite, with premiere giving him a final epic episode, complete with some heartbreaking scenes. TWD fans are still reeling from this twist, and Riggs was recently shown a compilation of fan reactions. Spoiler alert: there were tears shed. Check it out.

Well, my day is made. It's no secret that Walking Dead fans were very emotional over the death of Carl Grimes, and now Chandler Riggs was able to see it all first hand. His look of uncomfortability really says it all.

The video goes through Carl's final appearance on The Walking Dead, Season 8's midseason premiere titled "Honor". The film was no doubt given this name because it was the show's attempt at honoring both Carl and Chandler Riggs. Carl was shown having a nice final day in Alexandria, including spending with time with Judith and writing goodbye letters. It was an episode tailor made to elicit emotional responses, and the fans pictured in the above clip from Good Mythical Morning were no exception.

It's truly fascinating is seeing how truly devastated those Walking Dead fans were when saying goodbye to Carl. Rick Grimes' son hasn't had the best tenure on the series, as he was generally regarded as an annoying distraction during his first few seasons. Carl also made major mistakes that resulted in character's deaths, like Dale in Season 2. He eventually became a more independent and strong survivor of the apocalypse, but Carl was never quite a fan favorite like Abraham or Daryl.

Still, his death was shocking and hit the community hard, resulting in a petition to have the showrunner fired. It also seemed to have caused some havoc for Chandler Riggs himself. While this decision was likely made partly so Riggs could go to college, the actor himself didn't have much of a say. Riggs' father actually took to social media to tear down the producers, since his son worked for eight seasons on the apocalyptic drama. While watching the video of his fans crying, Chandler jokingly said his response to reading the script was similarly emotional.

While Carl Grimes may no longer be on The Walking Dead, his presence is still very much felt. Enid is reeling from his death and unsure if saving people is worth it. Additionally, both Rick and Negan seem to be affected by his death, which is motivating both men to kill each other and end the conflict.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC. In the meantime, check our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch. Additionally, check out our Amazon premiere list and superhero premiere list to ensure you don't miss a single episode.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been a doozy, and last week's midseason premiere was no exception. After revealing he'd suffered a walker bite to the ribs in the midseason finale, fans were given a few months to process Carl's death before it eventually occurred in the new episode "Honor". The episode was extremely emotional, as one of the last remaining original cast members leave the series after years of work. This was made even more heartfelt, as the fans and crew have watched Chandler Riggs grow up in front of their eyes. Actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan was not one to be left out, and recently penned a lovely tribute to Riggs following his highly anticipated departure from the apocalyptic drama. He said,

It turns out that Negan has a heart after all. Well maybe not the character, but Jeffrey Dean Morgan is as emotional about Carl's death as the rest of us.

While Carl may have had a tenure on The Walking Dead full of high and lows, it appears that Jeffrey Dean Morgan was always a fan of Rick's only son. Before he was eventually cast as the bat wielding Negan, Morgan was a Walking Dead fans like the rest of us. He too watched Chandler Riggs grow up on screen (although Carl technically only should have gotten a few years older in the timeline).

Additionally, Jeffrey Dean Morgan revealed how fascinated he is with Carl and Negan's relationship in Robert Kirkman's comics. Indeed, this dynamic was a highlight during Season 7, when Carl attempts to assassinate Negan from within The Sanctuary. In his Instagram post dedicated to Chandler Riggs, Morgan revealed how bummed he is that they couldn't continue playing with that relationship within the confines of the show, saying:

I'm not crying, you're crying! Like cast members such as Danai Gurira, it seems that Chandler Riggs' departure from The Walking Dead is really striking an emotional note with Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Now the question is: how will Negan react when he finds out Carl is gone?

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our superhero premiere list and Amazon premiere list so you don't miss a single episode.

Spoilers below for The Walking Dead's midseason finale, "Honor."

At the end of its sixth season, The Walking Dead dropped the mother of all cliffhangers on viewers with Negan's introduction, spurring an endless amount of conversations from fans dying to know answers. Skip forward a year and a half, and the AMC drama delivered arguably its biggest tragedy yet with Carl's death, but barely anybody was talking about beforehand. How did that happen? Apparently, Scott Gimple and his creative team decided to keep Carl's initial walker bite a secret from everyone at the time. Here's how Chandler Riggs put it:

Chandler Riggs was speaking to press via conference call ahead of the midseason premiere, and he shared that surprisingly simple tactic taken by The Walking Dead producers to ensure the integrity of Carl's final arc. The scene in question took place in Episode 6, titled "The King, The Widow, and Rick," when Carl was attempting to guide new survivor Siddiq back to Alexandria. The pair were attacked by a small pack of walkers, with the actual "bite" moment not appearing until the midseason finale. Even though the edited scene felt a little off at the time, that was also an episode where Jadis made Rick strip to his boxers and held him captive in a shipping container, so everyone can be forgiven for not immediately assuming that seemingly old-hat attack would change every dynamic on the show.

And it seems like there were probably a lot of folks on The Walking Dead who also didn't assume anything too horrifying about that fateful scene. Honestly, is there a more simple and cost-effective way to cloak a major show spoiler than to just not write it in the script? No one would even need to hide those script pages from anyone else in that case, and it would also draw less outside attention to that area of production in general, since that scene outwardly just looked like a run-of-the-mill Walking Dead moment in the woods.

It would have been pretty incredible had The Walking Dead been able to keep Carl's injury and Chandler Riggs' exit a secret from all the actors until the day of filming Episode 8, "How It's Gotta Be," so that fans could see the characters' most genuine reactions. That would likely have to be in deleted scenes, since no one would likely be able to stay in character for something like that, but that would be a hell of a workday for all involved. One has to wonder how often The Walking Dead uses this tactic, too.

During the aforementioned conference call, Chandler Riggs talked about a lot of different topics, including what he thought about the flash-forward reveal, and he also admitted that Carl's whole "aiming a gun using his bandaged eyehole" gaffe was purposefully his doing. And when I asked about possibly seeing Carl again in future Season 8 moments, I got something of a surprising answer, though we'll have to wait and see on that.

For its next episode, The Walking Dead will be giving the Saviors more time to shine, as Simon will be given a special mission. Check out an intense clip for "The Lost and the Plunderers," and don't forget to watch The Walking Dead Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. Then head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way.

Major spoilers below for The Walking Dead's Season 8 midseason premiere, so be sure to watch before reading on.

Though some fans were hoping against all hopes that Carl Grimes would somehow survive his walker bites and outlive most others in Team Family, the teen survivor did indeed join the choir invisible before the credits rolled. And for all intents and purposes, "Honor" may very well be the last time we see Carl outside of repeats. However, when Chandler Riggs recently spoke with CinemaBlend and other outlets for a conference call, I asked the actor if he'd filmed any Season 8 scenes intended for use in future episodes. And it was a case of silence potentially speaking volumes. In his words:

I'll immediately play the devil's advocate here by stating the obvious: an absence of proof here is not proof of Carl's non-absence during one or more future moments in Season 8, or even beyond that. The Walking Dead is known for having one of the most secretive productions in TV, and its foreknowledge-eschewing tactics extend to how the cast and crew respond to interview questions. So it's possible that even if Chandler Riggs hadn't filmed any additional scenes at all, the intention could exist to inspire fan speculation over whether or not we'd see him again, in a way perhaps similar to Michael Cudlitz's mysterious cameo in the Season 7 finale. After all, we're going to do it anyway, especially after Morales returned earlier this season.

Now let's push that devil's advocate junk aside and read between a few lines. Had Chandler Riggs quickly and sternly stated that he wasn't able to talk about any of the future episodes, it would have felt far more like a planned response. However, there was hesitance and stammering, and that tilted the scales for being optimistic about Carl showing up again in some way.

The most likely scenario would be through a flashback scene with Rick remembering happier times, or possibly he and/or other characters being inspired by other onscreen memories of Carl's empathetic and non-aggressive nature. (Obviously not about the time where he failed to kill that walker that murdered Dale, because that certainly not a good memory.) A handful of short and sweet moments like that would be a thoughtful way to honor not only Carl's legacy on the show, but also the significance of his final words and wishes for Rick. That approach could even allow for the character's appearances to go beyond the end of this season, since it's not like Rick is going to stop mourning his kid just because the All Out War is over.

Alternately, we could possibly see the Old Rick dream-future coming back around again if Rick does manage to secure a victory against Negan by whatever means necessary. The elder Grimes could have a late-game daydream of that idealized Alexandria, where Carl is inexplicably still living and breathing and available for Rick to embrace and talk to. That would ultimately be a more heartbreaking way to handle it, but it could work.

I'd first asked Chandler Riggs if there were any memorable scenes that were shot this season that eventually got cut, either from "Honor" itself or any previous episodes. Apparently no such moments exist, but at least there's a good reason for it.

A smart move to keep everything intact, since Carl has been shining more and more in recent seasons, which of course makes his death all the more inopportune and unwelcome. As such, his biggest fans will likely savor these final episodes for all they're worth. (I guess that sucks for anyone hoping for lots of deleted scenes on the Blu-ray.) We'll all likely appreciate the hell out of another one or two future visits from Carl as the show moves forward, too. So we'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Is Carl gone forever? Will Chandler Riggs be seen once again in a flashback to that pudding episode? Find out when The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out what Riggs told us about that flash-forward reveal, and then read up on the one thing he won't miss about working on the hit drama, as well as his favorite scene to film. Then, head to our midseason premiere schedule to see what new and returning shows are on the way in the coming weeks.

Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's midseason premiere, "Honor."

As Walking Dead viewers have been well aware since Season 8's mid-year finale, Carl Grimes was destined to shuffle off this mortal coil, which placed the season-opening Old Rick scenes in a new light. As Carl's final moments played out, we learned those "flash-foward" moments were actually Carl's idealized future for Rick and the others, meant to convince his dad to trade wartime for peace. Speaking with Chandler Riggs during a conference call with several other press outlets, I asked what he thought about that big reveal. (As well as Negan's later appearance, which comes later.)

As I'm sure it went for many other Walking Dead viewers, I was partially disappointed to learn that Happy Alexandria and its "Weird" Al songs and its owls and fairs were all just part of a fanciful dream delivered from someone's death bed. That disappointment is less about the way the story itself played out, and more about sincerely wanting to know that Alexandria is going to be rebuilt and that everyone will once again regain a sense of safety and comfort, for however temporary a time it may be. Strangely, I'm also disappointed that Rick's rapidly graying hair might not become a reality.

Everyone's opinions will differ when it comes to how the Old Rick scenes were used as foreshadowing. But "Honor" provided much significance and motivational verve for those washed-out moments. At least when it comes to changing how Rick and Michonne (and some others) perceive the All Out War, as well as conceiving different ways to achieve victory that don't just end in Savior corpses piled to the ceiling, with Negan and Lucille stuck to the top. Alas, it's "how it could be," and not "how it will be," so the jury is out on how close to reality Carl got.

The midseason premiere's extended trip into the faux future gave fans another big moment to think about with a last-minute reveal that Carl's vision for Rick's future also included a smiling and green-thumbed Negan. I asked Chandler Riggs about that moment as well, and he brought up how the villain's presence there hinted at the show possibly taking a more direct adaptation of Negan's future from the source material.

As stated, Chandler Riggs didn't get any of the scripts for episodes beyond the midseason premiere, so he couldn't definitively speak for whether or not Scott Gimple and the creative team will keep Negan alive beyond the end of the war. (Comic fans know the interesting turns that came next.) Carl obviously hoped that Rick would not only spare Negan's life, but also that he wouldn't need to keep the big bad's legs permanently broken in order to do so, for instance. But the fact that Dream Negan isn't wearing leather or carrying a baseball bat also means Carl assumes Negan will soon be perfectly fine with making compromises with Rick for the good of the community. We're not holding our breath for that.

What did you guys think about the flash-forward reveal? Let us know, and tune into AMC every Sunday night for new Walking Dead episodes at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out all the episode's saddest moments, as well as why we're not convinced Carl is gone forever, and head to our midseason premiere schedule to see all the new and returning shows that are on the way to a small screen near you.

Warning: major spoilers ahead for The Walking Dead Season 8 midseason premiere, called "Honor."

The Season 8 midseason premiere of The Walking Dead delivered one of the most heartbreaking and game-changing deaths of the series to date with the passing of Carl, who some once thought would be the last man standing. The show revealed his looming demise via zombie bite in the midseason finale back in December, and "Honor" gave Carl the chance to say goodbye to his friends and family. At first, he didn't know if he'd get the chance to reunite with any of them, and he wrote letters. The episode didn't show exactly what he wrote. Chandler Riggs spoke with CinemaBlend and other outlets on a conference call ahead of "Honor," and he had this to say when asked if Enid would end up getting her letter:

Carl was writing his letters in the opening montage set to "At The Bottom of Everything" in one of The Walking Dead's few uses of contemporary music. He had a nice little stack of letters going, and the camera revealed that he'd written one each to Rick, Michonne, Judith, and Enid. While we could see who he was writing to and that he was writing, it wasn't clear what final messages he was noting for his loved ones. According to Chandler Riggs, there were no specific lines in the script for what Carl was saying in the letters. If The Walking Dead does ultimately reveal what was written, it probably won't show whatever Riggs himself wrote while filming the midseason premiere.

All things considered, the scene of Carl writing goodbyes to his loved ones just in case he never got to see them again was an odd combination of heartbreaking and heartwarming. Unlike other characters who have bitten the dust on The Walking Dead, Carl got a few quiet moments to himself to collect his thoughts, make his peace, and say what he needed to say before he was consumed by fever. He even got to play with Judith before all hell broke loose in Alexandria. Those relatively uplifting moments were a fitting way to kick off what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most heartbreaking episodes of the entire series. After all, we had enough material for a list of 7 times The Walking Dead's midseason premiere made us want to sob.

Hopefully we will someday get to find out what Carl wrote to Rick, Michonne, Judith, Enid, and any others he may have penned letters to in his final hours. It's difficult to imagine the show never revisits the plot point. Revealing the contents later on could emotionally reconnect viewers to the tragedy of Carl's death. Characters' deaths can sometimes lose their impacts if the aftermath is filled with action and bloodshed; the letters could be a way for Carl's legacy to continue. We'll have to wait and see. The preview for the next episode does show Rick with his letter. There's always the chance that we could see Carl again some way or other. It worked for Abraham! At least the episode shed some light on that flashforward that has been mystifying fans since the very first full Season 8 trailer debuted.

Tune in to AMC on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET for new episodes of The Walking Dead. If you're still in the market for other shows (or just want to watch something a little less heartbreaking than post-Carl Walking Dead for a while), you can find a wide variety on our 2018 midseason premiere schedule, our 2018 Netflix premiere rundown, and our 2018 Amazon Prime guide.

Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of The Walking Dead.

It's both an exciting and somewhat daunting time for The Walking Dead. With the midseason premiere just around the corner, fans and crew alike are gearing up to say goodbye to Chandler Riggs' character Carl Grimes. The last episode revealed that Rick's son suffered a walker bite to the ribs, which means there's no hope he could survive it all. As such, both Riggs and the fans are reminiscing about Carl's long tenure on the apocalyptic drama. Now the young actor has revealed his favorite scene to shoot.

While Carl grew quite a bit as a character over the past eight seasons of The Walking Dead, it turns out that nothing is better than good old fashioned action. Chandler Riggs got to go to town with a rifle like he was in the middle of a war movie, and it sounds like a pretty awesome birthday gift.

The episode Chandler Riggs was referencing was "Internment", the fifth episode of The Walking Dead Season 4. Things at the prison had been getting progressively worse, with favorites like Glenn and Sasha getting the mysterious illness. Meanwhile, the large horde of undead grew too strong for the prison's fences, leaving everyone in danger. Rick and Carl eventually gear up in the courtyard, and mow down the undead by themselves.

This moment was an exciting one for Carl, as Rick had stopped engaging in battle during that point in the show. Carl getting his hands on an assault rifle was major, and it's fascinating to hear that Chandler Riggs' real life situation was actually something similar. It no doubt fueled his performance, and gave him a birthday he'll never forget.

The child labor laws surrounding weapons isn't something that casual fans probably think about, but it certainly makes sense. Chandler Riggs' comments to CinemaBlend editor Nick Venable during a recent phone conversation actually explains that weird gun/suppressor Carl was seen using during the show's first few seasons. I mean, check this thing out.

While Carl Grimes wasn't always the most popular character on The Walking Dead, his impending death is one that shocked fans. Many took umbrage with this decision, with fans even creating a petition to have the showrunner fired over to the decision.

The Walking Dead will return for Carl's goodbye February 25th on AMC. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our Amazon premiere list and superhero premiere list to ensure you don't miss a single episode.

Carl Grimes had one of the roughest rides of any character on The Walking Dead. One of his biggest mishaps happened back in Season 6, when Carl had his right eye shot out in Alexandria. The injury meant Carl had to adapt to having only his left eye, which in turn meant that Chandler Riggs had to figure out how to play a character with only a left eye. The Walking Dead fans discovered a big mistake in the series when Carl could be seen aiming a gun with his patched eye socket. Chandler Riggs spoke with CinemaBlend and other outlets ahead of the upcoming midseason premiere of The Walking Dead, and he explained the hilarious reason behind Carl aiming with his nonexistent eye:

As it turns out, Carl aiming with his shot-out eye came down to the simple reality that Chandler Riggs is a righty who didn't want to become a lefty for firing machine guns and assault rifles. He was clearly amused as he told the story behind using Carl's missing eye to shoot an assault rifle, and he's almost certainly not the only one. Sure, sticklers for detail and continuity within the Walking Dead fandom noted the mistake when it first aired in an episode, but it didn't harm the story at all. It's not like Carl was constantly firing automatic weapons on the show. Why should Chandler Riggs have to learn to shoot with his left arm and left eye when he has a perfectly good right eye in real life?

All things considered, Chandler Riggs deserves credit for learning how to use his left side for Carl's handgun as well as the other noticeable ways Carl had to favor his non-dominant side. He already had to learn a new way to move and use objects, and he wasn't allowed to cut his hair to increase his vision that wasn't obscured by an eyepatch. Besides, The Walking Dead is a show about the zombie apocalypse. If fans can suspend their disbelief for the dead reanimating with a taste for human flesh, surely we can suspend our disbelief about Carl aiming with his shot-out eye.

The continuity error did result in some entertaining reactions from viewers after they first noticed Carl shooting a rifle like a righty. Take a look at just one example from Twitter:

Unfortunately, fans won't get to see too much more of Chandler Riggs firing any kind of weapons on The Walking Dead. Carl was bitten by a zombie in the Season 8 midseason finale on an area of his body that couldn't just be chopped off, a la Hershel's leg. He was still alive at the end of the episode, but the midseason premiere promises to be a swan song for a character many thought would live to the very end of the series. Although Riggs (and his family) have expressed sadness at the decision for Carl to die, he did reveal that there's one thing he won't miss about The Walking Dead.

To see Carl in his final moments among the living, be sure to tune in to the Walking Dead midseason premiere on Sunday, February 25 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. If you're still in the market for other shows to watch now and in the not-too-distant future, feel free to swing by our midseason TV premiere guide and our 2018 Netflix premiere schedule.

Saying goodbye to a job can be both a pleasure and a pain, depending on the circumstances. For The Walking Dead's Chandler Riggs, his character Carl's impending death in the midseason premiere fits squarely into both categories. On the one hand, moving on from the show will allow his career to blossom, but on the other, it means leaving the people he spent his formative years with. Speaking with CinemaBlend and other outlets on a conference call ahead of the midseason premiere, Riggs shared the one thing that he won't miss about The Walking Dead after he's gone.

Chandler Riggs was ten years old when he started working on The Walking Dead, and he turned 18 during the Season 8 production. Out of everything he experienced during that time, it's honestly no shock that the element he's glad to put behind him involves the cast and crew's death dinners, which are held every time a cast member gets killed off. Wakes and funerals were some of my least favorite thing in the world when I was a kid, so I can't imagine I would have been overjoyed to experience multiple funeral-ish celebrations a year, especially for people I knew well. After all, The Walking Dead does not skimp on killing off main characters, which should be obvious, considering the topic at hand.

In Season 1 alone, The Walking Dead killed off Amy, Jim, Ed and Jacqui, not to mention Dr. Jenner and other short-term characters. And Season 2 took out Sophia, Dale and Shane, among others. That's a lot of death dinners to attend for a kid who probably shouldn't be aware of anything even called a death dinner. And considering just how close he's gotten with all of the survivors that have stuck around over the years, it makes perfect sense for Chandler Riggs to not want to ever deal with these on a regular basis again. I bet he'll show up for a future death dinner or two, though.

During the conference call, Chandler Riggs also spoke about his own death dinner a bit, hinting that it wasn't quite as emotionally tormenting as others have been.

Hopefully it helped that Riggs' death was introduced and then executed during different halves of the season, which might have given everyone more time than normal to get used to Carl's impending doom. As opposed to the way some characters get killed off suddenly and super-early in a given season, which offers zero comfort.

All in all, it really says something about Chandler Riggs' time on The Walking Dead that he only had one major grip about his eight-year span on the show. To be expected, perhaps, he was far more talkative about the things he loved about working on the AMC drama, such as his big papa Andrew Lincoln, and why leaving is bittersweet.

Will Walking Dead fans see more characters than just Carl getting killed off in the back half of Season 8? Well, there's still quite a bit of wartime to go, so I'm better on a yes. Find out when The Walking Dead's midseason premiere airs on AMC on Sunday, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. And to find out when other death-filled shows will be popping up in primetime, head to our midseason premiere schedule.

Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of The Walking Dead. If you're not caught up, turn away!

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been an interesting one. After a season of capsule episodes and world building, All Out War against Negan and The Saviors has begun. The results have been countless gunfights, some major twists and turns, and a handful of character deaths. While most of the casualties of war have come from less important side characters, the midseason finale revealed that Carl's time on the show was almost done. He was bitten trying to recruit Siddiq into Alexandria, and he'll probably only survive one more episode or so. It turns out that actor Norman Reedus was extremely upset by this writing choice, as he'd seen Chandler Riggs grow up from a young age. He recently said,

It looks like Norman Reedus might have previously subscribed to the fan theory regarding Carl's fate in The Walking Dead. Said theory claimed that the show and comic would both end centered on a fully adult Carl, who outlives his father and the rest of the survivors. Alas, the TV show has once again diverted from the comics, and killed off a character that is still alive and kicking in Robert Kirkman's graphic novel.

Norman Reedus' comments to EW seem to echo the feelings of most Walking Dead fans. Carl's bite was a major gut punch for the fandom, who had been following his character's journey since the very first episode. As such, there has been a massive backlash from the community about the twist, despite the character's somewhat mixed history on the series.

Some fans have even started a petition to get showrunner Scott M. Gimple fired over the decision to kill off Carl. And he did leave the position, albeit for a promotion. Scott M. Gimple will now oversee the entire Walking Dead brand, while writer and producer Angela Kang has taken over as showrunner of the apocalyptic drama.

Fans aren't the only one who took umbrage with Chandler Riggs' termination from The Walking Dead. Following the midseason finale, Riggs' father took to social media to bash the series, and how unceremoniously Carl was killed off. Meanwhile, his mother took a softer approach, penning a thank you to the many fans who have supported her son through the past eight seasons of TWD.

The Walking Dead will return to AMC February 15th, 2018. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch and our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop last year.

Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of The Walking Dead Season 8.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been an interesting one. The promise of All Out War against The Saviors was extremely enticing before the season began, and the results were a bit mixed. While plenty of shootouts and action were present, the first half of the season didn't do much in regards to character development. This is largely because there was no time for real conversation between the survivors, and the episodes all took place over just a few days. Plus, only nameless character seemed to be dying in battle. But that changed with the midseason finale "How It's Gotta Be" which ended with the realization that Carl Grimes had gotten bit, and would be dying shortly. This twist was met with massive fan backlash, especially since Carl is still alive and well in the comics. And now TWD head honcho Robert Kirkman himself has weighed in on the controversy, saying:

It looks like The Walking Dead isn't killing Carl off just to be dramatic, or to allow Chandler Riggs to attend college. Instead, it's apparently serving a greater narrative purpose, which is why Robert Kirkman seems to be supportive of this change from the source material.

Carl's impending death was a majorly divisive plot point for The Walking Dead fans, and was also the source of some drama from within Chandler Riggs' family. Following the midseason finale's airing, Riggs' father slammed production for unceremoniously firing his son after eight years on the series, while Riggs' mother penned a heartfelt thank you letter to the fans for their support. Some fans even started a petition for TWD's showrunner to be fired for the decision.

Regarding how emotional the fans are in the wake of Carl's walker bite, Robert Kirkman certainly seem to understand. But as he pointed out to EW, major character deaths in both the show and comics are meant to evoke that type of response. He recently spoke to this, saying:

Once again, the man has a point. Major character deaths are designed to make us upset, and The Walking Dead hasn't been shy about killing off its starring cast in the past few seasons. From Abraham, Glenn, and Sasha all perished last year, proving how high the stakes are with Negan and The Saviors.

The Walking Dead will return from hiatus on February 25th, 2018. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop last year.

Spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of The Walking Dead.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been a doozy. With All Out War against Negan and The Saviors raging, the entire first half of the season took place in just a few days' time. Gunfights have been present in every episode, and we've seen countless unnamed characters fall in battle. But the midseason finale brought the only significant character death, as Carl Grimes was revealed to have been bitten while bringing Siddiq to Alexandria. While fans and actor Chandler Riggs are still processing this unprecedented move, Riggs' mother Gina recently posted a touching tribute to the fans who watched her son on TV for the past eight years.

This post, from Gina Ann-Riggs' personal Instagram, show how much the family is dealing with Carl being killed off so suddenly. There is a lot to unpack for the family that has been working and living out of Atlanta for close to a decade, and with the character not set to die in the comics anytime soon.

Carl's death was something that fans have been theorizing about for years. The Walking Dead community is constantly coming up with new fan theories, which gain traction when the rabid fanbase posts them online. While some believed Carl to be the final survivor of the series, others have been counting down until Rick's son bit the dust. And with Chandler Riggs going off to college in the next year or so, it seemed like only a matter of time before Carl got taken out.

But this is apparently not how Chandler Riggs and his family thought. After he was killed off, Riggs' father posted a scathing letter about the decision. Despite Riggs' college ambition, the character's death seemed like it really hit everyone involved out of nowhere. But per Gina Ann-Riggs' post, it seems that the wounds have already begun to heal. Chandler was finally able to cut his hair, and has booked a film project already-- neither of which could happen if he were still on TWD.

The Walking Dead will return for its midseason premiere (with Carl still alive!) on February 25th, 2018. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch, and our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop this year.

*Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't yet watched The Walking Dead's midseason finale, titled "How It's Gotta Be." *

Chandler Riggs is going through one of the more hectic times of his career, now that his run on The Walking Dead is confirmed to be coming to an end in just two months. Carl's big reveal in the midseason finale was one of the most game-changing moments in the TV show's history, definitely outweighing Glenn and Abraham's murders, at least in terms of how it completely upends the comic book adaptation process. Amusingly, Riggs has high spirits concerning this giant shake-up, and he recently took to social media to poke fun at fans clamoring for his (albeit temporary) return.

In the image above -- created using some craftily disturbing Photoshopping -- Chandler Riggs is having a laugh by joking that Carl will return to The Walking Dead in a similar way to how Sarah Wayne Callies' Lori returned as a ghostly memory following her brutal death. There's next to zero chances we'll actually see Chandler Riggs showing up in Season 8 rocking a white dress that matches his newest eye patch, but it's a fun thought. (If nothing else, this picture reminds me how lovely Callies' neck is, even if it looks super-bizarre with Riggs' head planted atop.)

Rick's audio and visual Lori hallucinations were a sign of his fractured and muddied mental state, but they tended to calm him and inspire positive feelings and ideas, so it was far less of a haunting than an eccentricity. His fugue state continued for quite a while after Lori's death, which was brought about during Judith's birth, and while some fans have hoped Rick would continue getting random phantom phone calls from Lori in later years, that side of Rick's psyche has largely been left behind. But does Riggs' post legitimately hint at ways for Carl to show up in the back half of Season 8 following his death?

Chandler Riggs himself confirmed that Carl's death, which will presumably go down in February's midseason premiere, will not be the character's last appearance. Fans will get to see him show up in "bits and pieces and memories" throughout the next eight episodes, and while we're sure that one of those moments will involve the faux Old Rick flash-forward from the premiere, what will the other moments be? Possibly some reused footage from seasons past, and possibly some unused footage from other scenes we've already seen, including the moment when he was actually bitten by a walker. But could we maybe expect to see Ghost Carl at any point? Could be. Just...with different clothes involved.

Carl's impending death is arguably The Walking Dead's most interesting concept in Season 8 so far, and the aftermath has been equally interesting. Chandler Riggs' dad, who is popular with some Walking Dead fans on social media, ripped into AMC and showrunner Scott Gimple for "firing" Riggs in such a way, though the actor himself hasn't offered any frankly contrarian views on his impending exit; he even explained why Gimple decided to kill Carl off. It should be interesting to see how things play out after that mid-year premiere airs, though, when Riggs can more easily speak freely about it all.

The Walking Dead will return to AMC for the rest of Season 8 on Sunday, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what other new and returning shows will be hitting the small screen in the meantime, head to our 2018 midseason premiere schedule.

Major spoilers ahead for the midseason finale of The Walking Dead Season 8.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead has been a unique one. With the various communities uniting against Negan and The Saviors, the first half of the season largely focused on the various battles that took place over the course of a few days. While ratings took a bit of a slump, we saw the cost of war as countless nameless characters fell during the ensuing gunfights. But the midseason finale introduced the first big character death, as Chandler Riggs' Carl Grimes revealed a walker bite on his abdomen. While Carl isn't dead yet, we probably shouldn't expect too much of him when TWD returns from hiatus. Riggs recently revealed how much of his character will be in the back half of the season, saying:

It looks like Carl will most likely die in the midseason premiere of The Walking Dead, or shortly thereafter. We've seen how rapidly the virus kills folks with characters like Bob and Deanna Monroe, and the placement of his wound makes something like amputation impossible.

Carl's death was a major shock for fans, especially those who follow Robert Kirkman's graphic novels. Carl is still alive and well in the comics, and for much of The Walking Dead it seemed like the Grimes boy was on the unkillable list alongside Rick and Daryl. But with Chandler Riggs looking to go to college next year, it also seemed inevitable for Carl to bite the dust, in order for the series to logically continue on.

And plot wise, it seems that Carl's death won't be for nothing. His conversations with Rick this season have been about keeping their humanity, despite the war against The Saviors. Our group of survivors can't just massacre every Savior, as many of them are being kept against their will. Carl's assistance of Siddiq may have been his undoing, but it's an important message that Rick and the others need to hear. If they aren't willing to be merciful and value human life, what's the point of it all?

Chandler Riggs addressed the importance of his character's death in a conversation with THR, saying:

It should be interesting to see how Carl's death affects his father moving forward. Luckily he has a support system in the form of Michonne and Judith, but it's going to be a major loss for the former lawman.

The Walking Dead will return this February. In the meantime, check out our midseason premiere list to plan your next binge watch. Additionally, check our cancellation list to see if your favorite show got the chop.

Warning: spoilers ahead for the Season 8 midseason finale of The Walking Dead.

The midseason finale of The Walking Dead Season 8 will go down as one of the most game-changing episodes of the series to date thanks to that heartbreaking final scene. After an intense episode that saw the Saviors rampaging through the ranks of the people who had defied them, it almost seemed like we would be getting a semi-calm ending with the majority of the key characters safe underground. Then came the shocking reveal that Carl had been bitten by a Walker on the torso and was therefore going to die, meaning that young Chandler Riggs would be leaving the series. Chandler Riggs' father had something to say about his son's character getting killed off, and he didn't mince any words:

William Riggs, Chandler Riggs' father, shared his thoughts about his son losing his job on The Walking Dead in a candid Facebook post, although the post has since been taken down. His words make it clear that showrunner Scott Gimple did not deliver the kind of news Riggs wanted for his son at this point in his life. News that he would be losing the job he's held since he was a preteen must have been a very big deal for young Chandler, and his father evidently is not a fan of how it happened.

Of course, Chandler Riggs himself has been open about the devastation of losing The Walking Dead. He had apparently recently bought a house in the Georgia area where the show has filmed for so many years, and he was obviously close with everybody on set. William Riggs' post states that the whole family expected Chandler to be a part of the series for another three years, which had to make the news that Carl would be killed a big surprise. We can only hope that the young actor will go on to have a prosperous career in the non-zombie apocalypse areas of showbiz. The 18-year-old has already landed a movie that required him to get himself a mullet, so he isn't lacking for work.

At least we can say for sure that The Walking Dead won't simply gloss over Carl's death. Protecting Carl has been one of Rick's primary motivators over the series to date, even if he did come to trust his son on his own a lot more in recent years. We can see in the trailer that the loss of Carl will hit Rick very hard, and he has a history of not dealing with devastating family losses very well. Michonne was also visibly distraught at the end of the midseason finale, and we can bet that there will be plenty more sadness to come.

The Walking Dead will return for the second half of Season 8 in February. Our midseason TV premiere guide can fill you in on some important TV dates in the new year. Don't forget to take a look at our breakdown of the biggest questions we still have after the events of the midseason finale.

Spoilers below for The Walking Dead's midseason finale, "How It's Gotta Be."

For the most part, The Walking Dead's midseason finale was as destructive as any episode has been in the past, with only The Hilltop still standing mostly safe and sound. Something that wasn't destroyed, however, was the sanctity of spoiler freedom, with Carl's big bite reveal actually being kept a secret (mostly) by the Internet's biggest spoiler sites. Crazily enough, this largely unprecedented move was inspired by none other than star Chandler Riggs himself, who personally requested that Carl's impending death stay under wraps.

The biggest of all the spoiler sites, The Spoiling Dead Fans, shocked its fanbase recently by declaring it would not be releasing its usual weekly post of detailed episode teases, saying an explanation would come after the midseason finale aired. That explanation was posted today, and as stated, it involved Chandler Riggs putting out a humbled request for the TSDF admins to keep the big shocker off the site ahead of the midseason finale. (No matter that the site already had a huge thread speculating on the midseason finale's death probably being Carl, with all kinds of specific information backing the claim up.) You can check out the message below, with Riggs' penchant for lower-case lower case lettering flipped to capitals when necessary.

ShinyFirefly, the Spoiling Dead Fans site owner and admin, acknowledged that the site's limited treatment of Season 8's winter finale was something that hadn't happened before in all the years that it has been dedicated to releasing any and all Walking Dead info that's out there. Plus, it wasn't exactly an easy decision to change gears like that and basically do the opposite of the website's central mission, since everyone involved knew that the TSDF Army of fans would not react wholly respectably upon discovering no spoilers were being released. Still, Chandler Riggs' politeness and maturity took the admins by surprise, since they're generally accustomed to getting legal threats and more, and so they decided to honor the actor's wishes.

However, the Spoiler Dead Fans admins did have a single favor of their own, and they asked Chandler Riggs to help deflate a lot of the in-site backlash by writing a message to the TSDF fans about the situation. Perhaps surprisingly, Riggs did just that in one of the more gracious responses imaginable. Check out part of it below.

It will be interesting to see if this approach gets used by anyone else to try and curb unwanted spoilers in the near future, either at The Spoiling Dead Fans or somewhere else. My gut tells me things would happen much differently if so, but without any reports spoiling it for us, we'll just have to wait and see.

Check out what Chandler Riggs had to say about why Carl's death was conceived, and then see if your biggest post-midseason finale questions match up with our list. For the next couple of months, Walking Dead fans will be waiting for that midseason premiere, to hit AMC on Sunday, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see what other new shows are coming before then, head to our fall TV premiere schedule and our 2018 midseason premiere schedule.

Spoilers below for both The Walking Dead's midseason finale and the corresponding comic book arc, with potential future TV spoilers also coming up.

Last night's midseason finale from The Walking Dead delivered an ending that viewers won't soon forget, with the Carl-heavy episode ending on the reveal that he'd been hiding a walker bite on his side, meaning Carl won't be with us for that much longer. When actor Chandler Riggs was asked why showrunner Scott Gimple decided to kill off another Grimes family member, here's what he said:

There are definitely two ways to take this answer and reasoning. On the one hand, we'll give everyone the benefit of the doubt in saying it all makes sense. Carl's humanitarian agenda really was being pushed in the episode, from the early flashback scenes to his attempted self-sacrifice conversation with Negan. And because Rick is as hard-headed as they come, he probably never would have taken Carl's words beyond face value had there not been a giant tragic impetus to set things in motion. With Carl knocking on death's door, Rick will be forced to look back at his son's peacekeeping words in a new light.

Doubly so if Siddiq ends up being a major addition to Team Family's ranks, which would partially justify Carl's dangerous attempt to bring Siddiq to Alexandria. (Not that Siddiq was led into any kind of safe haven that Carl might have promised, so it'd be understandable if he didn't exactly embrace being shoved into the Ricktatorship.) I mean at some point, Rick has to understand that just killing off everything in his path will not guarantee the safety and happiness of those around him, especially when he's dealing with a group as big as the Saviors. So turning Carl into a quasi-martyr for the cause is a solid way to turn Rick's attention to less violent motivations.

On the other hand, while Comic Rick Grimes was responsible for killing plenty of Saviors in trying to take Negan down, he wasn't quite as murder-friendly as his TV counterpart, and there was more emphasis on other characters swaying his redemption-focused mindset. On the show, Rick isn't able to witness or hear all of Jesus' salvation talks, and it's not like TV Carl has been preaching forgiveness for ages, since it still hasn't been all that long since Negan arrived within the narrative's timeline.

As such, it seems a bit silly that Carl's newfound lease on others' lives would be the reason why Rick may choose to show Negan mercy at the All Out War's end. Especially after Rick and Negan got into that mini-brawl, with Rick getting thrown out of a window, Old West style. If nothing else, Rick will need a pretty hefty mourning period in order to attain a different worldview in the aftermath of Carl's death. But if the TV show decided to change up the comic story by having Rick choose to murder Negan in cold blood, I wouldn't be surprised or necessarily disappointed.

As far as how Chandler Riggs feels about Carl's big reveal, he's not exactly pissed off. Carl's death has been a long-running possibility for The Walking Dead, and the actor has brought as much attention to those rumors in recent months as he ever has. Here's what he told THR about how the big exit has affected him.

Chandler Riggs fans still have something to look forward to, as The Walking Dead will bring Carl back for a short while when Season 8 picks back up on AMC on Sunday, February 25, at 9:00 p.m. ET. Check out all the big questions we have after that mid-year finale, and to see all the new and returning shows that will debut in the meantime, head to our fall TV premiere schedule and our 2018 midseason premiere schedule.

For eight long seasons, Chandler Riggs has starred on AMC's The Walking Dead as Carl, the young son of main character Rick Grimes. Carl is one of the only original characters from Season 1 still on the show, and fans love to speculate whether or not he makes it to the end of any new season. While his fate in Season 8 is still debatable, one thing fans always seem to agree on is that this kid needs a haircut. Riggs' long flowing mane has been the butt of a few jokes, and we'll see if that changes after people get a look at his new haircut. Check it out:

Is that a young Eugene I see? Nope, that's Chandler Riggs sporting a new haircut -- a mullet to be exact. Riggs unveiled his new hairdo on his Twitter page, writing that he was giving his fans a little "forewarning." The Walking Dead actor had to cut his hair for a new movie, and that movie apparently requires him to have a mullet. Riggs didn't say much more, but he doesn't seem to be too big a fan of it himself, writing that he'd be "stuffing it into a hat" until he wraps the movie.

While we are left to ponder about this mysterious new movie (it isn't listed on Riggs' IMDB page), The Walking Dead enthusiasts are already beginning to speculate that Season 8 could be Carl's last. While fans usually theorize that Carl will die every year, this season seems a bit more believable than most. Outside of the usual reasons like contract negotiations and college education, this season of The Walking Dead has done some thematic teasing that Carl could be biting the dust. Fans have also speculated that the flash forward to a teary-eyed Rick could be about Carl's death. We'd like to point out that Steven Yeun was signing on for more movie roles, too, before it was confirmed he was getting killed off the show.

Regardless of Carl's fate, fans seem to be taking to Chandler Riggs' new mullet fairly well. While some are already ringing the death bell, others are having a bit more fun. Some have compared the new look to Eugene, another The Walking Dead character who's unapologetically formal in the front, but parties in the back, and Steve Harrington from Stranger Things. One Twitter fan pointed out a fun comparison between Eugene and the secrecy of Riggs' mullet.

We're not sure what's going to happen with Carl in the future, but The Walking Dead airs new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. An announcement about Chandler Riggs' new movie is likely coming soon, so keep checking in with CinemaBlend for more movie updates.

With Season 8 heating up, fans of The Walking Dead are already making their predictions about the next major deaths on the series. Some fan theories are putting Carl on the chopping block, and actor Chandler Riggs had to defend his character by taking to Twitter to clap-back at those thinking his Carl won't survive the end of this season:

Kaboom! Chandler Riggs tweet points out that people (both fans and websites) have been incorrectly predicting Carl's death for a long time. Of course, this time, The Walking Dead fans aren't solely predicting his death due to contract negotiations or his college education, but due to different clues like what was said to Rick in the premiere by that Savior. Fans are also speculating the flash-forward to a red-eyed Rick could mean he's crying and mourning the loss of his son, which sounds logical enough.

Logical or not, Chandler Riggs is enough of a professional that he's not going to cop to anything concrete, even if it's true. If Carl is going down in Season 8 of The Walking Dead, it's not like he's going to pop on Twitter and be like "Yeah guys, you got me. My death is gonna be SICK AF!" Riggs will, however, pop on Twitter to confirm to fans that he has not died in real life:

For what it's worth, Carl Grimes is still alive and well in the comic series, which is well past the All Out War arc that Season 8 of The Walking Dead is currently fleshing out. Then again, the comics just recently killed off Andrea, and she's been off the TV show for a long time now. The comic books aren't always the best indicator of whether or not any character will survive, so it might not be worth using them to predict whether or not Carl's going to make it out of this thing alright. If he doesn't, Chandler Riggs might catch all kinds of hell on Twitter for mocking the fan base!

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC. For more on the show, check out the series latest big death and read about how it was also the show's most ridiculous to date. For more on can't miss fall shows, take a look at our fall premiere guide, or head over to our cancellation guide to see what shows didn't survive 2017.

The past few weeks have been particularly exciting for avid TV fans, as fall premiers have arrived for a variety of networks. But there are still a few popular shows that are letting fans stew in anticipation for a bit more, chief of which is AMC's The Walking Dead. The apocalyptic drama is one of the most popular shows on television, and fans have been eager to return to the series now that All Out War has been declared against Negan and The Saviors. And while we may have to wait a few more painful weeks, a new clip from New York Comic-Con has been released to hold us over. Check it out.

Looks like Carl might be in a bit of trouble when Season 8 of The Walking Dead finally begins. Because it seems he's about to encounter a stranger, who may or may not be off his damn rocker. Let's break down exactly what we're being shown here.

The above sneak peek follows Chandler Riggs' Carl as he explores some abandoned gas stations, presumably looking for supplies. As he walks through the scene's setting, it truly hits home how time has passed on The Walking Dead. The various cars, bikes, and corpses are all breaking down at alarming rates, and we can see how long it's been since Rick first woke up in that Atlanta hospital. There are precious few living people still around, and those left will spend the majority of Season 8 planning to kill each other. This end of the world thing is no joke.

Eventually, Carl makes his way over to a gas station, where a mysterious voice suddenly rings out. In a bizarre and seemingly stream of consciousness monologue. We hear as the stranger recounts being shot at, having a microwave thrown at him, and then quotes both his mother and apparently The Quran. While Carl attempts to find the source of the voice, eventually spots a pair of seemingly living legs, and quickly points his gun at the mysterious newcomer.

This vague scene could tease just about anything. Carl may meet a new survivor and bring him back to Alexandra, as the monologue seems to be hinting at. But with so many Saviors presumably showing up to the area for the impending battle, he may be too nervous to bring a stranger to their home. Another possibility could be that the audio is simply coming from one of the abandoned cars, and the legs he saw are just a zombie. The latter is my personal guess, although it would make releasing this scene in advance pretty anti-climactic.

Overall, it looks like Season 8 of The Walking Dead is going to be pretty bonkers. Aside from the impending war with The Saviors, the season's trailer dropped a bomb on the audience. In its final moments, we saw an older and more grey Rick Grimes wake up, seemingly teasing a time jump. It's currently unclear when or how this plot devoice will function, although Andrew Lincoln said some questions will be answered in the premiere episode. Will there be flash forwards like Lost? Or will they go the Better Call Saul route and only use new timeline footage in the premiers/finales? We'll just have to wait and see.

Season 8 of The Walking Dead will premiere October 22nd, 2017. In the meantime, you can catch the spinoff Fear The Walking Dead, and be sure to check out our fall premiere list to plan your next binge watch.

Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't seen last night's season finale of The Walking Dead.

The Walking Dead smoke-filled conclusion for Season 7 inspired sadness over losing one of Team Family's finest in Sasha, as well as the injuries suffered by Rick, Michonne and Rosita. But it also inspired celebrations, as our big three communities combined forces and forced Negan's Saviors and Jadis' Scavengers into retreating. One big factor in that victory was Ezekiel's four-legged warrior Shiva, who was finally allowed to go into beast mode. To counter that badassery, star Chandler Riggs took to Twitter to poke fun at how goofy the "real" Shiva is during the show's production.

So many things are perfect about this post, which probably shouldn't come as a surprise, since Chandler Riggs has been upping his social media game, just as Carl Grimes has been getting more responsibly badass on TV. While doing some live-or-close-to-it tweeting for The Walking Dead's Season 7 finale, Riggs amusingly gave Shiva her props for coming in to save Carl in the clutch, but the actor's next move isn't to pay it forward and save someone else's life.

It's to point out how ridiculous the scene looked to the actors on the set, since "Shiva" isn't a real tiger at all (naturally), but rather a mixture of CGI, motion capture and some animatronics. And yes, that does include a dude leaping around in a blue full-body suit, and yes, it was hours after making that initial post that Chandler Riggs, known for humorously bashing the show's baby actors, made the further efforts to snag that image. Worth it.

Admittedly, there are probably rougher work days for people than pretending to be a tiger for a TV show, especially for a scene that involves lots of trampoline-umping and dining on people's throats. Of course, I'm not quite thinking about how miserable it must be inside of that blue suit while filming outdoors during the blistering Georgia summer. That would be insufferable just for scenes where Shiva is laying around by Ezekiel's throne, but to be leaping to and fro is another matter entirely. Had it been me in the part of the tiger, the effects team would have to go back and digitally remove all the sweat puddles building up around my feet. Er, paws.

We're definitely applauding the stuntman's efforts in bringing Shiva to life in full, since that sequence from "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" was one of the most action-packed scenes of the season. And some fans may have also been applauding the fact that Shiva seemed to instinctively know which people were the good guys and which ones were the bad guys. Actor Khary Payton, who plays Ezekiel on the show, had a hilarious response to an inquiry about just such a subject on Twitter.

Khary Payton and Chandler Riggs should start a TV show together. Wait.... Anyway, as great as it was to finally see Shiva break it down and treat Saviors like ham hocks, it's just as damning to know that we won't be seeing her or any other Walking Dead characters again until Season 8 hits AMC later this year. Until then, head to our midseason premiere schedule and our summer TV guide to see what shows you can keep your eye (of the tiger) on.

Performing on AMC's The Walking Dead does not seem like the easiest task for an actor. Between braving the elements and always expressing genuine fear in the face of fake danger, the show looks like an exhausting experience for everyone involved. Those difficulties do not help the performers when their co-stars can be a real handful. In fact, Chandler Riggs recently took part in an AMA session and admitted that the babies who play Judith Grimes can often be the hardest actors to work with on set. The young actor explained:

I honestly would have assumed that Chandler Riggs did not like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, if for no other reason than the fact that Carl's dynamic with Negan is gloriously antagonistic and full of some truly obvious hatred. However, it turns out that the babies who play Judith Grimes can be the biggest hassle on the set of the zombie series. Carl has regularly been tasked with nanny duties ever since he had to perform an emergency Cesarean section on his mother in Season 3, so always taking care of babies on set seems to have gotten under his skin over time. I can't say that I blame him.

Of course, we should probably point out that Chandler Riggs might want to enjoy the company of these babies while he still can. The live-action Judith Grimes has already outlived her comic book counterpart by a substantial margin, and some fans have theorized over the course of the last few seasons that Lil Ass Kicker may not be long for this world. Her imminent death has not been hinted at in recent episodes, but as The Walking Dead moves closer and closer to the source material, killing Judith may be the cost of creating a more faithful adaptation. We will just have to wait and see whether or not the show decides to go that far with her character. After all, Rick can only take so much.

Make sure to stay tuned for more of the latest and greatest updates pertaining to the hit AMC zombie series or head to Reddit to read the full interview. The Walking Dead airs every Sunday night at 9 p.m. EST. For now, check out our midseason premiere guide for more information regarding all of the most highly anticipated spring debuts!

The Walking Dead has gone through some major cast shake-ups over the years. In fact, only four characters from Season 1 have survived all the way to Season 7. Young Chandler Riggs' recent acceptance into Auburn University has led some viewers to wonder if Carl will be the next character to get the ax so that the actor can attend college full-time. Now, Riggs has weighed in on whether or not he could stay on the show and go to college, saying this:

There we have it. Chandler Riggs isn't necessarily planning on leaving The Walking Dead entirely to focus all his efforts on college. We may not have to watch Rick lose yet another member of his family, and Carl's recent upgrade from mopey teenager to badass rebel may not be wasted by a premature death. It might be tricky for the 17-year-old actor to work out a schedule with his professors that would allow him to continue his work in the zombie apocalypse in addition to his curriculum, but it could be mutually beneficial for Riggs and the college. Auburn University would get an awful lot of free press if a star of one of the biggest shows on television takes classes there.

There's no guarantee that Chandler Riggs will be able to stick with Carl as well as take classes, however. Still, he seems as enthusiastic about The Walking Dead as ever. He also told THR this about his plans for the future:

From a practical standpoint, Chandler Riggs probably could stick with the show and attend Auburn University without too much trouble. The school is located in Auburn, Albama, which isn't that far of a trip from where The Walking Dead films in Atlanta, Georgia. Throw in the fact that the cast is huge despite some big Season 7 character deaths, and Carl wouldn't need to die or disappear or get another body part shot off to explain any absences. Even Rick doesn't appear in every single episode nowadays. Chandler Riggs could have a reduced filming schedule without any of us really noticing. If Emma Watson could earn a degree from Brown while filming two Harry Potter movies and a couple of independent films, surely Chandler Riggs can manage to stay on The Walking Dead while studying at Auburn.

No character is ever 100% safe on The Walking Dead, so we shouldn't take Chandler Riggs' enthusiasm as a guarantee that Carl won't be killed off. Still, we don't have to count Carl out just yet. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in The Walking Dead news, and check out The Walking Dead next Sunday at 9 p.m. ET to see what happens to Carl, Daryl, and the rest in the super-sized midseason finale. With Negan currently cuddling baby Judith in Alexandria, we can bet that the stakes will be pretty high in the episode. Check out our midseason 2017 TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch during the Walking Dead hiatus.

The Walking Dead likes to present all of its characters as being expendable and in permanent danger, though viewers well know there are some survivors that will likely never be killed off. Carl Grimes is definitely one of those characters, but rumors have swirled around the possibility of Chandler Riggs leaving the show in the future, now that he's been accepted into college. Is this actually going to happen, though? Let's discuss.

Conversations about Chandler Riggs departing The Walking Dead started earlier this month after the actor took to Twitter with his celebratory news that he'd gotten into Auburn University, and those conversations were strengthened by social media posts from his father, William. The elder Riggs did some of his own celebrating on Facebook and Instagram about his son having completed his seven-year contract with The Walking Dead, but the original FB post was reportedly soon deleted and replaced with something shorter. According to MoviePilot, that first post was more detailed about the hardships that Chandler Riggs dealt with during productions shoots, such as leaving behind friends and working in the freezing cold, which has some inferring the actor would no longer have to worry about such things.

The same kind of razor-sharp speculation was given to William Riggs' Instagram post seen below. It is far more brief, but makes use of the hashtage "#freedom," which obviously has some thinking this signifies something more permanent than just a between-seasons hiatus.

Those are the reasons why people think Chandler Riggs IS leaving The Walking Dead, but now it's time to talk about why he probably won't be leaving. For one, he's a major part of one of the biggest shows on TV who is finally getting more interesting. And while young actors leaving projects is something that does indeed happen, I cannot imagine that he would walk away from a role that will likely last many more years and provide him with the financial security to do whatever he wants. And it's not like it would be strictly necessary for him to quit the show in order to relocate to Auburn (if he's even doing that).

The show's widening setting means fewer characters are shown in each episode. So if Carl is in, say, four episodes in the first half of Season 8 and is only on screen for less than ten minutes an episode, he would only need to show up for filming on a limited scale. That presents its own set of scheduling issues, admittedly, but nothing so impossible. Plus, Atlanta is a relatively short trip up I-85 from Auburn, Alabama, so commuting isn't such a ridiculous concept. And then there's online classes, and so on and so on.

Showrunner Scott Gimple and comic creator Robert Kirkman have almost definitely kept the actor's future very much on the forefront of conversations with him, so unless something comes directly from those three people, we shouldn't worry about a Carl-free society happening in the near future. Unless things go REALLY haywire following the ending of last Sunday's episode.

The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC, and look no further than our fall TV schedule and our midseason premiere schedule to see what's coming to the small screen in the future.

Some spoilers ahead for the midseason premiere of The Walking Dead.

Now that Season 6 of The Walking Dead is back to doing the damn thing with giant massacres and a grinning Abraham, fans have new things to talk about, and the first chunk of the season can settle into the past. Moving forward, there’s one thing that we hopefully never have to worry about again: showrunner Scott Gimple making it look like someone is dead when they’re not. According to Chandler “Ol’ Bandage Eye” Riggs:

And so now we know that these big and exciting moments are going to be more straightforward, unless Gimple and co-creator Robert Kirkman fooled Riggs into fooling us by saying that. The well goes deep, man, probably all the way to the White House!

When Glenn’s “Is He/Isn’t He?” quasi-arc (or lack thereof, I guess) was being conceived as a way to dramatically utilize the fractured structure of the first 8 episodes, I can’t imagine the writers anticipated the massive blowback from fans that the gimmick received, regardless of what their intentions were as far as “fooling” people went. Gimple defends the approach, while actor Steven Yeun understands both sides of the issue. Riggs, on the other hand, is apparently fully behind the assertion that it was a big “Gotcha!” moment. I can get behind that transparency.

It’s extremely likely that Gimple wouldn’t have gone back to this kind of a scenario anyway, especially not immediately, but it’s still good to hear Riggs so assuredly say that something like that won’t be happening again. Except, you know, the midseason premiere did make it look like Glenn would die for that couple of seconds before Abraham brought out the firepower. As well, I’m pretty sure Chandler Riggs isn’t the first person that Gimple calls when he makes decisions about what he wants to do with each character. So it’s possible/probable the actor is only speaking from a limited place, and that Season 8 will bamboozle everyone by making us think that Daryl got blown up in his house, but he was actually able to slip out through a mousehole.

Also, check out how Riggs describes Negan, the psychotic and charming murderer that will completely disrupt the show’s status quo, to Huffington Post.

Frightening gets one mention, while some version of “annoying” gets two mentions. Sounds like an answer Carl would give. And considering Carl and Negan will bond in a way as time goes on, I’m eager to see how Riggs’ answers about the character differ from other cast members.

Without any more fakeout deaths to speak of, The Walking Dead airs Sunday nights on AMC.

Some big old potential spoilers are lurking below.

No one busting their ass on a popular TV show wants secrets and plot points getting leaked to the public ahead of time, but The Walking Dead is one that’s always being targeted for such leaks, and it’s inevitable for certain details to come out early. In this case, though, it looks like someone from the TV side of things is responsible, particularly a Russian Fox affiliate who went too far in promoting the return of Season 6 with poster giving away a massive spoiler. What was on it? Carl Grimes with a patch over one of his eyes.

“Is that one ‘i’ in Grimes or two, Carl?”

The patch over the eye indicates that Carl will be incapable of going cross-eyed in the future, thanks to something going really, really wrong for him in the near future, probably in the midseason premiere when the mayhem kicks off almost immediately after Sam whines for his mom. (We’re assuming/hoping that’s a fatal moment for the non-strapping young lad.) Comic fans have been waiting for this moment, so it makes perfect sense that actor Chandler Riggs in an eyepatch was dressed up for future marketing material.

But that’s assuming it’s real in the first place. This is 2016, after all, and mocked-up images are nothing new, even when we’re talking specifically about images of Carl with something over one of his eyes. However, Chandler Riggs himself took to Twitter to call out people trying to spoil things for others, which adds a little bit of strength to the image’s legitimacy.

When The Walking Dead set photos started popping up as the back half of Season 6 was being filmed, Riggs was supposedly seen with a patch of some kind on his head, but there wasn’t much to take from it at the time beyond the surface assumptions. If this image was deemed important enough to use as a promotion, even if it was in error, it hopefully means Carl won’t just get pinkeye or have sawdust blown into his eye, calling for a temporary fix and not indicating a major injury. You just never know with this show.

If the image, which you can look at here, is indeed real, then fans can hopefully expect to find a different Carl on the other side of that injury. One who finally rises up from under the thumb of Rick’s shadow and starts to make decisions on his own…and good decisions that don’t involve leaving the house. And one who eventually forms a strange bond with Negan.

The Walking Dead returns to AMC for an eye-popping midseason premiere on Sunday, February 14. To see when everything else is premiering in the coming months, check out our midseason TV schedule.

Star Wars isn’t just about "Episodes" anymore. Next year will see the first Star Wars Anthology film with the release of Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars: Rogue One, a movie that takes place in the same universe as the main saga, but follows characters not directly related to the Skywalkers. The next non-saga project after Rogue One will be a young Han Solo project, and with filming set to begin in about 12 months, producers are scouring the galaxy looking for the actor who will play the iconic role. The good news is if you’re a young male actor, you pretty much have as good a shot as anybody else, as the word is that over 2,500 people have been looked at for the part.

J.J. Abrams specifically went looking for unknown actors when casting his two leads in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but obviously being a known quantity does not appear to be a negative in the case of the Han Solo movie. Names you’ve heard like Miles Teller and Tom Felton have apparently been thought about for the part, as well as up-and-coming actors like Jurassic World’s Nick Robinson are also being looked at. Being unknown certainly won’t hurt you either. For example, unless you’re a big fan of the Disney Channel series Kickin’ It, you’re probably not familiar with Leo Howard - but you may be soon if he gets the role.

Age is not an issue either. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 16-year-old Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs is on the list, as is 34-year-old Rami Malek. Technically Malek could still play a "young" Han Solo, but he’d have to hurry. Harrison Ford was 35 in 1977 when the first Star Wars movie came out.

The plan is to cut the massive number of actors down to something manageable, then to turn the short list over to directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller to make final decisions. The movie is set for a summer 2018 release with filming looking to begin in January of 2017, so while there’s plenty of time, there are a lot of actors to get through.

To say the least, this a huge opportunity for any young male star. Becoming part of the growing Star Wars franchise would be a feather in the cap of any actor, but it also could start the career of a young unknown with a bright future ahead of him. Star Wars was the movie that really made the world aware of Harrison Ford, and it could do the same for whoever the lucky winner of the Han Solo lottery turns out to be.

With 2,500 people apparently being considered there are a lot of names that we obviously don’t know are being looked at – and a few of them are likely names we’d recognize. Who do you think would make the best young Han Solo? One of the names listed, or somebody else entirely? Hit the comments below with your thoughts.

Let’s kick things off with some full disclosure for those not already aware: I hate The Walking Dead’s Carl Grimes in a way that’s probably unhealthy, as I could be putting that energy into something more helpful, like raising my children to not be like Carl. In any case, all the other Carl-haters and I can finally look forward to the character having at least one moment of supreme glory in the upcoming Season 6, though it’ll be directly tied to something he says, and not necessarily something he does. Still, I can take that.

While speaking at the Fan Expo Canada 2015 event this past weekend, The Walking Dead stars Chandler Riggs, Norman Reedus and Lennie James were on-hand for an amusing Q&A with the fans, and when someone asked about their favorite lines from their characters, all three of them ended up championing a line that Carl will deliver. After Riggs said that his was “coming up,” James poured on the anticipatory glee.

I’ll admit that by itself, nothing Carl says is going to completely turn me over to his side, but I’m more than willing to hear him utter what sounds like it might be one of the best TV quotes of the year. Because after all, it’s also about what’s happening during the scene when that line is spoken, and comic fans know that Carl has quite a bit of excitement coming in his life, if Scott Gimple and Robert Kirkman decide to take things in the same direction, that is. In any case, I doubt he’s just sitting in a room with Enid when he says his line.

I have to wonder if Carl will say my favorite line of his from the comics, in which he’s defending another character from an attack at a moment later than where the show is right now. You can read it below, but I can’t imagine that AMC would allow him to say it as is.

That would be amazing if they did, though. Carl also has some pretty killer lines whenever Negan enters the story, as they have an interesting dynamic. But it’s unclear whether or not Negan will definitely be joining Season 6 or not, so maybe we’ll hear James and Riggs saying the same thing about Carl’s dialogue next summer before Season 7.

Reedus also says that his favorite line of Daryl’s is coming in Season 6, and that there are a bunch of other good ones to come. I’m betting Abraham has a large number of those. Find out what characters will be saying what when The Walking Dead premieres Season 6 on Sunday, October 11.