AMC’s The Walking Dead would have been a completely different show if Robert Kirkman, the creator of the franchise, had one wild pitch accepted by the TV show’s writers.
Inspired by the original comic book series written by Kirkman, The Walking Dead is a zombie drama that begins with police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) awakening from a coma to discover that the world has been overrun with zombies. As with the comic book, Rick would essentially serve as the main character at the heart of the story, though The Walking Dead would evolve into more of an ensemble with Rick eventually leaving the remaining cast to take over in Season 9. However, Deadline reports how Kirkman revealed during San Diego Comic-Con that he’d actually tried to kill off Rick very early in the TV series, a move that would have certainly blown the minds of fans of the comics.
“With Walking Dead, I was much younger and much more reckless,” as Kirkman explains, noting how he was looking to make the TV show as different as possible from the comics. “I was an absolute lunatic. I would get in the writers’ room and be like, ‘Kill Rick Grimes today! I don’t care! It’ll be funny! People will freak out, and it’ll be fun!’ The writers were like, ‘Robert, you’re crazy. We can’t do that.’ But any time there were big changes in The Walking Dead, that’s what excited me.”
Robert Kirkman Loved When The Walking Dead Would Change Course
While Rick was able to be spared from Kirkman’s attempts to kill him off, there would be many other changes made with the transition from The Walking Dead from the comic books to the small screen. Other characters from the comics, like Andrea (Laurie Holden) and Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies), were killed off much sooner than their comic book counterparts. Meanwhile, there are other characters, perhaps most notably Carol (Melissa McBride), who’d become much more beloved with their television versions. Of course, it should be noted that Norman Reedus’ Daryl Dixon didn’t exist in the comics at all, and creating the character was a deviation that has worked out incredibly well.
The Walking Dead ended last year with its eleventh season, but the franchise lives on. Rick Grimes is still alive and well in that universe and is set to return alongside Michonne (Danai Gurira) for the upcoming spinoff titled The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Meanwhile, there’s much more to come with other spinoffs, as The Walking Dead: Dead City and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon have both been renewed for second seasons.
Source: Deadline