A ‘Walking Dead’ Star’s Father Rips Showrunner Scott Gimple For Firing His Son

[Spoilers for The Walking Dead season eight midseason finale]

The Walking Dead fans had a sneaking, covered-in-guts suspicion about what might happen in the midseason finale, and on Sunday night, it came true.

Carl Grimes, one of the longest-tenured regulars on AMC’s zombie series, revealed a walker bit him and, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, he’s not dead yet but he’s getting there. “It will play out as we’ve seen bites play out,” showrunner Scott Gimple said. “It’s very important to the story and to Carl’s story, and I am very focused on the fact that Carl is alive. He has some business to tend to.”

Carl’s dad has some business to tend to, as well.

No, not Rick, but William Riggs, the father of 18-year-old actor Chandler Riggs, who learned what was going to happen to Carl in June (it was not his decision to be written off The Walking Dead). “It was devastating for me and my family because the show has been such a huge part of my life for so long,” Riggs said. “For a few days, we didn’t know what to do.” That’s a much nicer way of framing it than what his dad said on Facebook after the midseason finale.

“Watching Gimple fire my son 2 weeks before his 18th birthday after telling him they wanted him for the next 3 years was disappointing,” he wrote. “I never trusted Gimple or AMC but Chandler did. I know how much it hurt him.”

Riggs acknowledged how “lucky we have been to be a part of it all and appreciate all the love from fans all these years,” but he’s still non-plussed that his son is being written off one of the biggest shows on television. On the bright side, now Chandler can join Lizzie, T-Dog, and Beth’s “I Was On The Walking Dead, and All I Got Was This Death Scene” Facebook group.

(Via Facebook)

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