Robert Kirkman Reveals His Biggest WALKING DEAD Regret
The Walking Dead has been an absolute pleasure to watch over the last few years. I’m a die hard fan who has enjoyed every episode that has been released. Sure, some are better than others, but they have all provided some awesome, intense entertainment.
In a recent interview with THR, Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman reveals his biggest regret on the series so far, and it took place at the end of Season One.
"If I had to do it again, I wouldn't have done the CDC episode [at the end of season one].”
That is the episode where CDC doctor Edwin Jenner (Noah Emmerich) reveals to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) that everyone is already infected. It possibly gave away too much information and was such a big change very early on in the series.
In the comic book, Rick and his posse don’t learn that everyone is infected until after Tyreese's daughter, Julie, is killed in what was supposed to be a joint suicide pact with boyfriend Chris. It’s that moment that she comes back from the dead without a zombie bite, that Rick puts everything together. Kirkman continued,
"I feel like there might have been a better way to wrap up the first season. It ended up being a fun episode. I love the character of Dr. Jenner and thought Noah did an amazing job. But there were things in that episode that I think seem very much not of The Walking Dead world."
At the time, no one was really sure if the series was going to be as huge of a hit as it has become. So it makes sense that they would have switched things up a bit to grab the attention of the viewer in the first season. The writer went on to say,
"I probably would have changed that stuff. I’ve been careful in the comic series to not say what's happening in other parts of the world. It's something that's going to be fun to explore in the spinoff series. But the fact that France is mentioned in that episode and other things like that, I probably would have steered away from that stuff if I had to do it all over again."
The reason he brings up the French is that their scientists didn’t leave their lab during the outbreak, so they might be on the road to helping find some kind of cure. There’s still not a lot of information on what the upcoming spinoff series will entail, but rumor has it that it’s a prequel that takes place in the early days of the outbreak in other parts of the world.
He also said that Daryl (Norman Reedus) is one of the best changes to the Walking Dead universe, and he also likes how Carol (Melissa McBride) has developed in the series.
"Carol was extremely different in the comic and I was attempting to tell a completely different story with that character than what we ended up doing on the show. Carol in the comic and Carol on the show couldn't be more different. I'm really proud of the evolution that that character has gone through. It's one of the best parts of the show. Melissa McBride's performance is absolutely amazing. More than any other character, Carol has evolved in leaps and bounds. You go back to the first season and it's almost like a different actress is playing that character because she's so different. It's been a really remarkable transformation in a show about transformation. That's been a great and welcome change."
As far as Kirkman’s big regret goes, the way it ended up playing out in the series didn’t bother me at all, so it’s not really a big deal to me. I had a bigger issue with the way the most recent episode ended, though.