The ‘Walking Dead’ Boss Opens Up About Almost Killing One Of The Show’s Best Characters

Carol Peletier is one of the few characters from the early seasons of The Walking Dead who’s still alive (it’s her, Daryl, and Rick, Maggie, and Morgan). She’s also, arguably, the best; her transformation from a victim of abuse into an invaluable (and badass) leader has been nothing but short of remarkable. But Carol almost didn’t make it past since season three. During a recent interview with Insider, Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple confessed that the writers considered killing her during the prison storyline. (That’s when she commits suicide in the comics, from death by intentional walker bite.)

“[In] season three, there was some conversation about maybe Carol going away,” he said. But, “I was dead set against it because I thought it would be a great story to see a person who came from abuse become the hero, and not in an easy way. She herself had to struggle with the power that she found.”

Still, because this is The Walking Dead, someone had to die, and that someone was T-Dog. “Not a lot of people know that when we were shooting season three, in the episode where T-Dog died, there was a moment where Carol was going to die in lieu of T-Dog’s character,” executive producer and director Greg Nicotero told SFX Magazine back in 2016. “At that point, there was some concern in the writers’ room that they didn’t know where to take her character.” All these years later, Carol is still kicking, and still killing zombies.

As always, R.I.P. T-Dog.

In other Walking Dead news, Danai Gurira appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to (barely) discuss her impending departure. “Well, I will say, I can say as much about that as I can about Endgame,” the Black Panther star said about Michonne’s fate. “I have a pretty simple life, I can just tell nobody anything.”