In just a few short days, the moment we've all been waiting for will be upon us. That's right, The Walking Dead is back after 6 months of anxiously waiting for the conclusion of last season's finale. Season 6 ended with a now infamous cliffhanger, as we saw Jeffrey Dean Morgan's villainous Negan take his barbed wire bat to the skull of a mystery character. Since then, fans have debated and theorized as to which character(s) will die in the opening moments of the premiere. One of the most popular candidates is everyone's favorite possum eating redneck, Daryl Dixon. But now it appears that Norman Reedus has other plans for how his beloved character should bite the dust.
Norman Reedus recently spoke to the good folks at ComicBook.com regarding his characters fate. When the subject of Daryl's death came, Reedus suggested the following:
I'd like him to just walk away and just walk away into the woods, and people go, 'Where the heck is that guy?. It's like, 'Oh, he gets shot.' 'Oh, he turns into a zombie.' 'They put him down.' We've seen all of that happen so many times. I think with Daryl, because he came in that way, I think he should go out that way. He should just walk away, and people are like, 'What ever happened to him?' Nobody knows. He's like the Outlaw Josey Wales or some shit.
There you go, ladies and gents. If Norman Reedus has his way, Daryl will simply walk into the sunset by himself- presumably after a walker bites him. Considering the hard life Daryl has had, as well as how hard he's fought throughout the show's long run, this seems fitting for the loner with a heart of gold.
But now that Norman Reedus has revealed he doesn't want his character simply shot or killed, does this mean that Daryl is safe from Lucille in the Season 7 premiere? In that case, everyone cancel the riots you scheduled for Sunday night. It looks like our buddy Daryl is sticking around.
Daryl has been on the short list of characters most likely to die since the Season 6 finale dropped April. Because the cast and crew have teased so heavily that the character death would be devastating, it was clear that at least one of the main characters was about to meet their maker. And now that a sneak peek was released featuring Rick with blood on his right cheek, Daryl, Glen, Maggie, and Abraham are all in serious danger. The death of Daryl would truly be shocking, and his presence would be missed as The Walking Dead continues its strong run.
Personally, I don't think it's Daryl. The crossbow wielding warrior wasn't featured that heavily in Season 6, as he spent most of the season on two different runs- and was confronted by the Saviors twice. We got no trace of a goodbye between he and Carol, and the show never fully explored his relationship to Aaron and Eric. Conversely, the finale felt like a glorious goodbye to Abraham, and we're ready for Glen to be dead for real.
The Walking Dead will return to AMC this Sunday, October 23rd.
