Some big old potential spoilers are lurking below.
No one busting their ass on a popular TV show wants secrets and plot points getting leaked to the public ahead of time, but The Walking Dead is one that’s always being targeted for such leaks, and it’s inevitable for certain details to come out early. In this case, though, it looks like someone from the TV side of things is responsible, particularly a Russian Fox affiliate who went too far in promoting the return of Season 6 with poster giving away a massive spoiler. What was on it? Carl Grimes with a patch over one of his eyes.
“Is that one ‘i’ in Grimes or two, Carl?”
The patch over the eye indicates that Carl will be incapable of going cross-eyed in the future, thanks to something going really, really wrong for him in the near future, probably in the midseason premiere when the mayhem kicks off almost immediately after Sam whines for his mom. (We’re assuming/hoping that’s a fatal moment for the non-strapping young lad.) Comic fans have been waiting for this moment, so it makes perfect sense that actor Chandler Riggs in an eyepatch was dressed up for future marketing material.
But that’s assuming it’s real in the first place. This is 2016, after all, and mocked-up images are nothing new, even when we’re talking specifically about images of Carl with something over one of his eyes. However, Chandler Riggs himself took to Twitter to call out people trying to spoil things for others, which adds a little bit of strength to the image’s legitimacy.
When The Walking Dead set photos started popping up as the back half of Season 6 was being filmed, Riggs was supposedly seen with a patch of some kind on his head, but there wasn’t much to take from it at the time beyond the surface assumptions. If this image was deemed important enough to use as a promotion, even if it was in error, it hopefully means Carl won’t just get pinkeye or have sawdust blown into his eye, calling for a temporary fix and not indicating a major injury. You just never know with this show.
If the image, which you can look at here, is indeed real, then fans can hopefully expect to find a different Carl on the other side of that injury. One who finally rises up from under the thumb of Rick’s shadow and starts to make decisions on his own…and good decisions that don’t involve leaving the house. And one who eventually forms a strange bond with Negan.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC for an eye-popping midseason premiere on Sunday, February 14. To see when everything else is premiering in the coming months, check out our midseason TV schedule.
