In "The Walking Dead" Everyone is Potentially on the Chopping Block in Seas. 8

*this article was written by Martin Lowell.

It looks increasingly like Carl Grimes’ days could be numbered in "The Walking Dead" as speculation that he will not see the end of season eight continues to rage on. First up Rick was told “your boy’s going to die” in the season premiere, and then a teaser showed him surrounded by zombies later in the season. He is a crucial character and well loved by many fans, but Robert Kirkman always likes to remind fans that no one is safe from the writers’ noose in this show. There is not necessarily a narrative reason to kill off Rick Grimes’ son, the deuterogamist in the show since its inception. But actor Chandler Riggs plans to go to college at some point and killing off his character could free him up for his studies.

When asked about persistent rumours of Carl’s demise, producer David Alpert was keen to stoke the fire. ‘I think we’ve shown time and time again that everybody’s on the table, and that we’re the type of show where we don’t have a problem deviating from what the comic does,” he said. ‘We had people saying, “Oh, if Daryl dies, we riot.” ‘No, it’s like we hear you. We still get people petitioning us to bring Beth [Emily Kinney] back. ‘There are so many people that love Emily that want her back. That being said, everybody’s on the table, and where the story demands we go we’re going to follow.”

Nowadays sportsbooks take bets on the next character to be killed off in The Walking Dead and plenty of fans have money riding on Carl getting ripped apart. This season and you will find all sorts of options. Many well-loved characters are on the list, but some are in graver peril than others. The favorites in this market are: Jadis, Ezekiel, Gregory and Eugene.

Jadis is a TV creation and a plot device for the All Out War, but could easily be dispensed with when she has served her usefulness. You normally get one big, heart-breaking death in a series and it could well be King Ezekiel, who has lost his entire assault unit and his beloved Tiger, Shiva. Ezekiel has split fans, but he has had an enormous influence on the show’s milieu, but his cards look marked.

Gregory has been scheming away and sold out the Hilltop, risking the suspicion of Negan, so it doesn’t look good for him. Eugene provides comic relief to the show and is always an entertaining distraction from the horror, but he sold out Rick, switched sides and has plenty of betrayal under his belt. “The key to survival is allowing oneself to be shaped by the assigned environment,” he once told Abraham Ford. “In doing so, a broad range of capabilities are acquired, allowing one to flip the script and use said capabilities to shape said environment for maximum longevity. I’m saying I’m in the process of said stage two. I’ve changed, adapted… I’m a survivor.” Bold words, but they might not count for much by the end of the season.

Ratings have been falling on the show and the writers must be under pressure to mix it up and spark some interest, so when Kirkman says “no one is safe” you had better believe him. There are plenty of show stalwarts that could go, but you cannot make a much more emphatic statement than killing Carl. Well, you could go all Game of Thrones and kill off Rick, Ned-style, but that would rip the heart out of the show. Carl is more dispensable and it could soon be the end of his journey.


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