Over the years, The Walking Dead has molded Carol (Melissa McBride) from a meek housewife into many people”s vote for “Best Character.” Time and time again she has shown a aptitude for cold calculation needed to survive in a zombie apocalypse. All without losing her capacity for emotion and empathy. Forget the Ricktatorship. Give us a Carolocracy.
But this almost wasn”t the case. Recently The Walking Dead“s Greg Nicotero spoke to SFX Magazine about Carol”s original fate. After the death of Sophia, showrunners were struggling with a direction to take Carol”s arc, so they considered killing her off:
“Not a lot of people know that when we were shooting season three, in the episode where T-Dog died, there was a moment where Carol was going to die in lieu of T-Dog”s character. At that point there was some concern in the writers” room that they didn”t know where to take her character. So the fact that [showrunner] Scott Gimple and the writers have been able to craft this amazing journey for her just goes to show that there is a tremendous amount of story to tell for a lot of these characters.”
This isn”t the first time Nicotero has spoken about the change to Carol”s arc, but it might be the most detailed.
For fans of the comic series, Carol”s near-miss with being written off isn”t a surprise. McBride”s take on the character is a night and day difference from the weak, unbalanced woman in the graphic novels. Instead of being forged by fire into a hardened survivor, Comic-Carol is irrevocably broken by events. With Sophia still very much alive, Comic-Carol commits suicide by zombie during The Group”s stay at the prison.
Instead, TV-Carol is galvanized by both her traumas and T-Dog”s sacrifice. By “30 Days Without An Accident” she”s morphed from meek to mighty, teaching the children how to fight with knives whether Rick likes it or not. While she could still meet her end in the February 14 mid-season premiere, whenever Carol goes down, it”ll be swinging.
[Via GamesRadar]