The Walking Dead: Carl Grimes’ Death, Explained

Everybody has their “Strolling Lifeless” breaking level. It is the loss of life that pushes you over the sting, curdling your love for the seemingly countless AMC zombie franchise into one thing extra bitter and jaded. For me, it was the lack of Beth (Emily Kinney) in season 4, a pointless shock loss of life that was the precise reverse of the empowered narrative the present’s solid and crew had been hinting in direction of in press junkets forward of time. Many followers, I feel, peaced out when Steven Yeun’s beloved underdog Glenn Rhee was gratuitously overwhelmed to a pulp in entrance of his family members (a story selection that also conjures up individuals to yell at Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the street).

Completely different “Strolling Lifeless” deaths hit followers in several methods, however the season 8 loss of life of Carl (Chandler Riggs) packed an enormous emotional punch for a number of causes. For one factor, the son of collection antihero Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) had been with the collection since day one, and several other of its earliest gasp-worthy moments featured the naive, candy child (actual ones keep in mind shedding it when he acquired shot in season 2!). A lot of Carl’s younger life had been suffering from relentless catastrophe, and he’d pulled by way of it so admirable. He was one of many solely “Strolling Lifeless” characters who followers thought deserved long-lasting plot armor, however when it got here time to up the stakes but once more in season 8, his day on the post-apocalyptic chopping block lastly arrived.

By season 8 of “The Strolling Lifeless,” Carl has grown from a helpless child right into a succesful, compassionate teenager, and he places all his abilities to good use throughout his heartbreaking final hurrah. Carl dies within the mid-season premiere episode, “Honor,” after making ready a number of survivor communities — Alexandria chief amongst them — to outlive an imminent assault by Negan and the Saviors. Whereas attempting to assist a person named Siddiq (Avi Nash, who would turn into a major solid member after Carl introduced his character into the fold), Carl will get bit within the stomach by a walker. It is a loss of life that is without delay stunning and anticipated: in spite of everything, how did we anticipate he’d die in a zombie apocalypse?

In basic zombie story style, Carl would not initially inform anybody about his zombie chunk, and he spends a lot of his final hours along with his sister Judith. He additionally writes letters to his family members, and when he lastly does reveal his standing to Rick, Michonne, and Daryl, they convey him to a church the place he describes a dream he has for the longer term. In it, an older Rick has established lasting peace and is elevating his household in a neighborhood that features everybody — together with Morgan’s often-villainous Negan. Earlier than he dies, Carl saves the Alexandrians along with his escape plan, and Daryl tells him he is a hero. In maybe probably the most upsetting element of the episode, Carl shoots himself with the gun his dad gave him early within the collection – ending his life earlier than the virus can flip him into one of many undead.

In Robert Kirkman’s “Strolling Lifeless” comics, Carl has a very completely different ending, dwelling into maturity and elevating a household of his personal. Within the present, his loss of life finally serves as a motive for Rick to forgive Negan, permitting each males to dwell and diffusing a seasons-long showdown that needed to attain an finish date sooner or later.

“The Strolling Lifeless” franchise is understood for delivering out-of-left-field deaths that shock each the viewers and solid alike, however few tales of shock exits have been as miserable as that of Chandler Riggs. “It was devastating for me and my household as a result of the present has been such an enormous a part of my life for thus lengthy,” Riggs told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “For just a few days, we did not know what to do.” The younger actor famous that he had simply purchased a home in Georgia earlier than getting the information that he was completed on the present.

Interviews and statements within the wake of Riggs’ exit appear to trace at the concept that the actor, at the very least in line with sure events concerned, acquired a uncooked deal. In a now-deleted Fb publish shared by Comic Book Resources, Riggs’ father William Riggs allegedly refuted rumors that Riggs had requested to depart the present after being admitted to school. In line with the elder Riggs’ alleged publish, the actor who had performed Carl for eight years deliberate to do on-line college, and that author and then-showrunner Scott Gimple informed him he’d be wanted for 3 extra years. He signed a one-year contract with a second-year choice, per William Riggs, however the household was then known as into a gathering with Gimple wherein he stated Carl can be killed off within the new season.

Within the publish, per CBR, Mr. Riggs wrote that he “was upset Scott had been dishonest with a 17-year-old making life choices and waited to inform us,” calling the scenario a case of “unkind timing.” In his THR exit interview, Chandler Riggs famous that he did not have any discussions in regards to the potential for retaining Carl alive, explaining, “When Scott informed me, that was his choice.” Gimple, for his half, told the same outlet that Riggs’ exit “was a narrative flip, that is it. We didn’t obtain a request [from any actor] or something like that.”

At a fan pageant a 12 months later (per Digital Spy), Riggs stated that filming his goodbye “sucked,” however that he is “actually pleased with the way it turned out.” As brutal because the circumstances surrounding Riggs’ exit look like, he is persistently famous how lucky he’s to have been part of the present, and the way excited he is been to work on new initiatives after leaving.

Carl’s exit could have been painful as heck, however “The Strolling Lifeless” saga has regularly honored the character within the years since he met his destiny, typically placing his final bits of knowledge on the middle of main, game-changing moments. When Rick lastly slits Negan’s throat within the season 8 finale, he reveals mercy on the final second, remembering the letter Carl wrote asking the 2 to make peace. Rick finally decides to construct a greater future because of his son’s insights, displaying restraint as a technique to honor Carl.

Carl’s reminiscence additionally drives – and practically breaks – Rick within the spinoff collection “The Strolling Lifeless: The Ones Who Reside.” After a five-year time-jump, an amputated hand (finally!), and a reunion with his love Michonne (Danai Gurira, who co-wrote the epic reunion episode), Rick confesses that he needed to study to dwell with out Carl twice. The primary time was when Carl truly died, and the second was when, after being captured and stored on a brief leash (typically actually) by the Civic Republic Navy, he stopped dreaming of his son. Rick was scared to loss of life, each of forgetting Carl’s face and of letting himself love somebody (particularly Michonne) he would possibly lose once more. As soon as once more, the reminiscence of Carl pushes Rick to maintain going, and Michonne presents him with an engraving of their boy that conjures up Rick to present life with Michonne one other likelihood.

After the abrupt and upsetting means Riggs left the collection, it initially appeared like he would possibly find yourself by no means going close to “The Strolling Lifeless” once more. A 12 months after his exit from the collection, Riggs informed Good Day Sacramento (via Looper) that he was shocked to listen to that Andrew Lincoln was leaving too, noting that he hadn’t been in contact with the actor in months. However in line with an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Riggs took the initiative of asking govt producer Denise Huth if he may come to set for the collection finale shoot. It was a transfer that not solely reconnected him along with his previous coworkers but additionally landed him a shock cameo within the episode.

Riggs could be noticed within the background of a large shot throughout a collection finale scene that includes three of the final remaining authentic castmates from the present — Melissa McBride’s Carol, Lauren Cohan’s Maggie, and Norman Reedus’ Daryl. In a scene set on the Hilltop neighborhood, the actor performs a resident who’s farming, and he says the concept to have him cameo got here collectively so shortly that he did not even change out of the garments he’d arrived in. “They have been like, ‘Let’s get you in there. Right here!'” he informed EW, noting that the wardrobe division did give him a wide-brimmed, Father Gabriel-esque hat to put on. Collection finale director Greg Nicotero, who held many roles on the present all through its 11-season run, says that he had the concept to throw Riggs in a shot and that it “wasn’t deliberate” in any respect.

“It was plenty of enjoyable,” Riggs informed the outlet. “It was only a fast factor earlier than the remainder of the filming for the day, so it was fairly cool.” After the advanced context surrounding Riggs’ exit, it feels like his finale expertise introduced some closure – and an opportunity to reunite with former solid and crew members. “Chandler is such a tremendous man,” Cohan informed EW, including, “He is simply actually beautiful. It was a category act for him to return that day.”

Within the years since leaving “The Strolling Lifeless,” Riggs has stayed busy; he isn’t solely continued working as an actor however has additionally launched music, launched a manufacturing firm, and directed a brief movie and a music video. On the “The Strolling Lifeless: The Ones Who Reside” premiere final 12 months, Riggs told ComicBook.com that he was engaged on a brief movie that may characteristic Madison Lintz, who performed Carol’s ill-fated daughter Sophia within the first two seasons of “The Strolling Lifeless,” and Katelyn Nacon, who performed Carl’s one-time love curiosity Enid starting in season 5. In line with IMDb, he labored on the 2024 brief “The Unicorn That By no means Lies,” and his subsequent upcoming brief has an excellent identify: “Brad Pitt Dies Quite a bit.”

On the performing entrance, Riggs has had a recurring function on the weepy ABC drama “A Million Little Issues,” and he is additionally starred within the critically acclaimed vacation indie movie “Breakup Season.” Riggs performed Peter Parker within the brief “Spider-Man” fan movie “The Spider,” which put a horror spin on the teenager hero story and voiced Superman in a feature-length animated Justice League movie. Up subsequent, he’ll seem within the Western film “Florida Wild” alongside Mira Sorvino and Lee Majors.

In his ComicBook interview, Riggs stated he began a manufacturing firm known as Clean Mix Movies, and in line with an interview with the New York Post, he is additionally DJed and created “cinematic digital music,” citing Hans Zimmer as an affect. Riggs has formally launched music beneath the stage identify Eclipse. Talking to the Publish in 2019, the actor, now 25, stated one of many greatest modifications post-“Strolling Lifeless” got here from now not being the infant on set. “I can exit for some drinks with my castmates and simply be an grownup,” he defined. “I am attending to work with so many professionals that do not see me as simply ‘the child on the set’ and that is actually cool.” 

He’ll all the time be Carl Grimes to us, nevertheless it’s additionally clear that Riggs is making the uneasy transition from baby star to grownup actor about as gracefully as attainable. We’re excited to see no matter he does subsequent.

Everybody has their “Strolling Lifeless” breaking level. It is the loss of life that pushes you over the sting, curdling your love for the seemingly countless AMC zombie franchise into one thing extra bitter and jaded. For me, it was the lack of Beth (Emily Kinney) in season 4, a pointless shock loss of life that was the precise reverse of the empowered narrative the present’s solid and crew had been hinting in direction of in press junkets forward of time. Many followers, I feel, peaced out when Steven Yeun’s beloved underdog Glenn Rhee was gratuitously overwhelmed to a pulp in entrance of his family members (a story selection that also conjures up individuals to yell at Negan actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the street).

Completely different “Strolling Lifeless” deaths hit followers in several methods, however the season 8 loss of life of Carl (Chandler Riggs) packed an enormous emotional punch for a number of causes. For one factor, the son of collection antihero Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) had been with the collection since day one, and several other of its earliest gasp-worthy moments featured the naive, candy child (actual ones keep in mind shedding it when he acquired shot in season 2!). A lot of Carl’s younger life had been suffering from relentless catastrophe, and he’d pulled by way of it so admirable. He was one of many solely “Strolling Lifeless” characters who followers thought deserved long-lasting plot armor, however when it got here time to up the stakes but once more in season 8, his day on the post-apocalyptic chopping block lastly arrived.

By season 8 of “The Strolling Lifeless,” Carl has grown from a helpless child right into a succesful, compassionate teenager, and he places all his abilities to good use throughout his heartbreaking final hurrah. Carl dies within the mid-season premiere episode, “Honor,” after making ready a number of survivor communities — Alexandria chief amongst them — to outlive an imminent assault by Negan and the Saviors. Whereas attempting to assist a person named Siddiq (Avi Nash, who would turn into a major solid member after Carl introduced his character into the fold), Carl will get bit within the stomach by a walker. It is a loss of life that is without delay stunning and anticipated: in spite of everything, how did we anticipate he’d die in a zombie apocalypse?

In basic zombie story style, Carl would not initially inform anybody about his zombie chunk, and he spends a lot of his final hours along with his sister Judith. He additionally writes letters to his family members, and when he lastly does reveal his standing to Rick, Michonne, and Daryl, they convey him to a church the place he describes a dream he has for the longer term. In it, an older Rick has established lasting peace and is elevating his household in a neighborhood that features everybody — together with Morgan’s often-villainous Negan. Earlier than he dies, Carl saves the Alexandrians along with his escape plan, and Daryl tells him he is a hero. In maybe probably the most upsetting element of the episode, Carl shoots himself with the gun his dad gave him early within the collection – ending his life earlier than the virus can flip him into one of many undead.

In Robert Kirkman’s “Strolling Lifeless” comics, Carl has a very completely different ending, dwelling into maturity and elevating a household of his personal. Within the present, his loss of life finally serves as a motive for Rick to forgive Negan, permitting each males to dwell and diffusing a seasons-long showdown that needed to attain an finish date sooner or later.

“The Strolling Lifeless” franchise is understood for delivering out-of-left-field deaths that shock each the viewers and solid alike, however few tales of shock exits have been as miserable as that of Chandler Riggs. “It was devastating for me and my household as a result of the present has been such an enormous a part of my life for thus lengthy,” Riggs told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “For just a few days, we did not know what to do.” The younger actor famous that he had simply purchased a home in Georgia earlier than getting the information that he was completed on the present.

Interviews and statements within the wake of Riggs’ exit appear to trace at the concept that the actor, at the very least in line with sure events concerned, acquired a uncooked deal. In a now-deleted Fb publish shared by Comic Book Resources, Riggs’ father William Riggs allegedly refuted rumors that Riggs had requested to depart the present after being admitted to school. In line with the elder Riggs’ alleged publish, the actor who had performed Carl for eight years deliberate to do on-line college, and that author and then-showrunner Scott Gimple informed him he’d be wanted for 3 extra years. He signed a one-year contract with a second-year choice, per William Riggs, however the household was then known as into a gathering with Gimple wherein he stated Carl can be killed off within the new season.

Within the publish, per CBR, Mr. Riggs wrote that he “was upset Scott had been dishonest with a 17-year-old making life choices and waited to inform us,” calling the scenario a case of “unkind timing.” In his THR exit interview, Chandler Riggs famous that he did not have any discussions in regards to the potential for retaining Carl alive, explaining, “When Scott informed me, that was his choice.” Gimple, for his half, told the same outlet that Riggs’ exit “was a narrative flip, that is it. We didn’t obtain a request [from any actor] or something like that.”

At a fan pageant a 12 months later (per Digital Spy), Riggs stated that filming his goodbye “sucked,” however that he is “actually pleased with the way it turned out.” As brutal because the circumstances surrounding Riggs’ exit look like, he is persistently famous how lucky he’s to have been part of the present, and the way excited he is been to work on new initiatives after leaving.

Carl’s exit could have been painful as heck, however “The Strolling Lifeless” saga has regularly honored the character within the years since he met his destiny, typically placing his final bits of knowledge on the middle of main, game-changing moments. When Rick lastly slits Negan’s throat within the season 8 finale, he reveals mercy on the final second, remembering the letter Carl wrote asking the 2 to make peace. Rick finally decides to construct a greater future because of his son’s insights, displaying restraint as a technique to honor Carl.

Carl’s reminiscence additionally drives – and practically breaks – Rick within the spinoff collection “The Strolling Lifeless: The Ones Who Reside.” After a five-year time-jump, an amputated hand (finally!), and a reunion with his love Michonne (Danai Gurira, who co-wrote the epic reunion episode), Rick confesses that he needed to study to dwell with out Carl twice. The primary time was when Carl truly died, and the second was when, after being captured and stored on a brief leash (typically actually) by the Civic Republic Navy, he stopped dreaming of his son. Rick was scared to loss of life, each of forgetting Carl’s face and of letting himself love somebody (particularly Michonne) he would possibly lose once more. As soon as once more, the reminiscence of Carl pushes Rick to maintain going, and Michonne presents him with an engraving of their boy that conjures up Rick to present life with Michonne one other likelihood.

After the abrupt and upsetting means Riggs left the collection, it initially appeared like he would possibly find yourself by no means going close to “The Strolling Lifeless” once more. A 12 months after his exit from the collection, Riggs informed Good Day Sacramento (via Looper) that he was shocked to listen to that Andrew Lincoln was leaving too, noting that he hadn’t been in contact with the actor in months. However in line with an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Riggs took the initiative of asking govt producer Denise Huth if he may come to set for the collection finale shoot. It was a transfer that not solely reconnected him along with his previous coworkers but additionally landed him a shock cameo within the episode.

Riggs could be noticed within the background of a large shot throughout a collection finale scene that includes three of the final remaining authentic castmates from the present — Melissa McBride’s Carol, Lauren Cohan’s Maggie, and Norman Reedus’ Daryl. In a scene set on the Hilltop neighborhood, the actor performs a resident who’s farming, and he says the concept to have him cameo got here collectively so shortly that he did not even change out of the garments he’d arrived in. “They have been like, ‘Let’s get you in there. Right here!'” he informed EW, noting that the wardrobe division did give him a wide-brimmed, Father Gabriel-esque hat to put on. Collection finale director Greg Nicotero, who held many roles on the present all through its 11-season run, says that he had the concept to throw Riggs in a shot and that it “wasn’t deliberate” in any respect.

“It was plenty of enjoyable,” Riggs informed the outlet. “It was only a fast factor earlier than the remainder of the filming for the day, so it was fairly cool.” After the advanced context surrounding Riggs’ exit, it feels like his finale expertise introduced some closure – and an opportunity to reunite with former solid and crew members. “Chandler is such a tremendous man,” Cohan informed EW, including, “He is simply actually beautiful. It was a category act for him to return that day.”

Within the years since leaving “The Strolling Lifeless,” Riggs has stayed busy; he isn’t solely continued working as an actor however has additionally launched music, launched a manufacturing firm, and directed a brief movie and a music video. On the “The Strolling Lifeless: The Ones Who Reside” premiere final 12 months, Riggs told ComicBook.com that he was engaged on a brief movie that may characteristic Madison Lintz, who performed Carol’s ill-fated daughter Sophia within the first two seasons of “The Strolling Lifeless,” and Katelyn Nacon, who performed Carl’s one-time love curiosity Enid starting in season 5. In line with IMDb, he labored on the 2024 brief “The Unicorn That By no means Lies,” and his subsequent upcoming brief has an excellent identify: “Brad Pitt Dies Quite a bit.”

On the performing entrance, Riggs has had a recurring function on the weepy ABC drama “A Million Little Issues,” and he is additionally starred within the critically acclaimed vacation indie movie “Breakup Season.” Riggs performed Peter Parker within the brief “Spider-Man” fan movie “The Spider,” which put a horror spin on the teenager hero story and voiced Superman in a feature-length animated Justice League movie. Up subsequent, he’ll seem within the Western film “Florida Wild” alongside Mira Sorvino and Lee Majors.

In his ComicBook interview, Riggs stated he began a manufacturing firm known as Clean Mix Movies, and in line with an interview with the New York Post, he is additionally DJed and created “cinematic digital music,” citing Hans Zimmer as an affect. Riggs has formally launched music beneath the stage identify Eclipse. Talking to the Publish in 2019, the actor, now 25, stated one of many greatest modifications post-“Strolling Lifeless” got here from now not being the infant on set. “I can exit for some drinks with my castmates and simply be an grownup,” he defined. “I am attending to work with so many professionals that do not see me as simply ‘the child on the set’ and that is actually cool.” 

He’ll all the time be Carl Grimes to us, nevertheless it’s additionally clear that Riggs is making the uneasy transition from baby star to grownup actor about as gracefully as attainable. We’re excited to see no matter he does subsequent.