The Walking Dead's Season 7 finale gave fans plenty of surprises, as well as some four-legged mayhem, and Abraham's big return offered some of the more pleasant moments during Sasha's major sacrifice. CinemaBlend spoke with Michael Cudlitz about the recently released Season 7 Blu-ray set, and I asked him what he thought about the possibility of Abraham showing up again for a similar set of memory-driven flashbacks with Eugene, potentially giving the troubled character some key insight into his currently dour situation in the Sanctuary. Here's what the actor said:
I would strongly consider whatever the show came at me with at any point. I had a great experience with the show. As long as they keep telling stories the way they're telling them, which I feel is amazing, I'd be open to anything as long as it worked with my schedule, obviously. I'm on the other side of [the show's current story]. But I would certainly come back and play if they wanted me to. I think that any of that stuff, that origin story, or why people are making certain decisions. You could trace it back to our earlier group if that helps, do that. That could certainly be explored, and the audience would love it, because that's how we tell the stories. It wouldn't be something that was manufactured just to bring characters back. We do flashbacks on the show. We have since the beginning. So yeah, all that is definitely a possibility. There's another character that I think would be back before me. But who knows?
The Walking Dead has definitely offered up a ton of flashbacks over the years, and in a bunch of different ways. We wouldn't even know how Rick first ended up in the hospital without them, or how Morgan reached his period of inner peace. But there was definitely something different and refreshing about the way that Abraham came back in the most recent finale, as those scenes weren't the objective views of the past that we're used to seeing. (Here's what Cudlitz told us about those flashbacks.)
By making it a more personal and perhaps imperfect representation of earlier events, a new avenue opened up for ways The Walking Dead can flirt with the past and call back to happier times between characters both alive and gone. And while everybody in Team Family could use a dose of good vibes from earlier days, I think few would argue that Eugene is in the most damaging headspace right now, working for Negan and living the not-as-terrible-as-others life within The Sanctuary. And Cudlitz is right in saying that fans would love to see some more from the time before Abraham and Eugene met up with Team Family.
Fans' reactions to the Eugene's actions have unfortunately bled into the real world, with actor Josh McDermitt's personal life affected, and though I'm not saying that's a reason for showrunner Scott Gimple to flip Eugene back to the good side, I am saying that the mullet-donning brainiac could use some advice from the redheaded behemoth that saved his life time and and again.
Of course, it would take a lot more than just "it makes sense" and "Michael Cudlitz would do it" to get Scott Gimple to come to the decision that Abraham deserves another post-bludgeoning return to The Walking Dead. After all, he wasn't the only person to get murdered by Negan in Season 7, and as the actor hinted at, there's someone else that could sensibly make an initial return before audiences would get a second comeback from Abraham.
We know that Season 8 will reference Glenn and his death in some way -- and we'll wager it has everything to do with Maggie and their unborn child -- but that obviously doesn't mean he'll actually show up in person. We can hope, of course, but it won't necessarily do any good. And while we're at it, though, I think it'd be amazing if the show was able to work in a flashback to the earliest days of The Walking Dead, so that former stars like Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey DuMunn, Laurie Holden and Sarah Wayne Callies could also return. (The latter actress did tell me she would be down for a return.)
If you're wanting to dive back into that crazy finale, The Walking Dead: The Complete Seventh Season Blu-rays can set you up wonderfully, and you'll get to learn some interesting new info as well, thanks to the commentary tracks from cast and crew. (That goes for other episodes beyond the finale, too.) There are also tons of featurettes to dig into, covering the expanded locations in Season 7, the badass females on the show, the comic book, the writers and much more.
While it's unknown when or if Abraham will ever find a spot again in the world of The Walking Dead, we do know that Season 8 will be hit AMC on Sunday, October 22, at 9:00 p.m. ET. To see when everything else is hitting the small screen in the near future, head to our fall TV premiere guide.
