Season 7 of AMC's The Walking Dead has been quite the doozy. The apocalyptic drama started its season in the most gruesome way possible- with both Abraham and Glenn being brutally murdered at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. Most actors working on The Walking Dead know that their job will likely come to an unexpected and bloody end, as main character are constantly killed off in order to keep the plot somewhat plausible. But these announcements often come as a big surprise, like with alumnus Emily Kinney. Although now it appears that Abraham himself actually got the news a bit early.
Actor Michael Cudlitz, who played Abraham Ford on The Walking Dead since Season 4, appeared this weekend on the Walker Stalker Cruise- a 3 day vacation which features TWD cast and crew doing various Q&A's. During one such event, Cudlitz revealed how he learned Abraham was going to bite the dust (via Comic Book),
I was up visiting my son at college and I got a phone call, 'Scott [Gimple] wants to meet with you next week when you come back'. Scott hadn't met with me in two years. I was like, alright, I'm dead. Let's call Scott and confirm this.
Sometimes all it takes is a phone call with the right person to put things in perspective. And given that Michael Cudlitz had already been promoted to a series regular, there weren't a lot of reasons for meeting with Scott Gimple alone. Abraham was shit out of luck.
It also makes sense that Michael Cudlitz perhaps saw Abraham's death coming, considering where the character was going on the show. Last season saw Abraham developing strong feelings for Sasha, and breaking up with Rosita in order to truly live each day to the his full potential. And as he and Sasha continued to get closer, Abraham also took a special interest in Glenn and Maggie's baby. During the Season 6 finale Abraham and Sasha decided to try having one of their own, and he finally made up with Eugene. This all spelled disaster for Abraham, which is why many (myself included) had predicted he was going to die during in the Season 7 premiere.
Additionally, Abraham's comic book death was recycled to shockingly kill Denise on the TV series. Considering that Abraham had already ran his comic book course through the AMC drama, it makes sense that they'd let him go in order to introduce new characters. After all, how much more could everyone's favorite ginger really continue to change?
But just because Abraham died doesn't mean we'll never see him return to The Walking Dead. New rumors reported that Abe might be able to return this season through the use of flashbacks or dream sequences. While surprising, this isn't exactly unprecedented on the series. Lori came back in weird vision to Rick in the prison, and Tyrese's death saw the return of Beth, Lizzie, Mika through his hallucinations.
The Walking Dead returns this Sunday, February 12th on AMC.
