The highest-rated episode of The Walking Dead is still the one where Negan brutally murdered Abraham and Glenn, season seven’s “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be.” It’s also when a lot of viewers stopped watching the zombie series; even members of the cast, including Andrew Lincoln (Rick) and Steven Yeun (Glenn), thinks The Walking Dead went too far in its brutality.
Add Chad Coleman to that list.
The actor, who played good-guy Tyreese from season three to season five (and Cutty on The Wire!), told Popcorn Talk that he had enough of The Walking Dead after Negan (and Lucille) was introduced. “After Glenn and Abraham, you know, Negan smashed their heads in that way, it was just kinda like, that’s enough for me. Thanks guys. Take care. All the best.” But Coleman eventually tuned back in once the show came “back around to more nuanced, less extreme characters, you know?” (The Walking Dead is the only show where “humans wearing creepy skin-masks” is considered less extreme.)
He continued, “That’s one of the benefits and joys of playing Tyreese, he’s a very real man in a very tough situation and you felt his humanity, his sensitivity, all the things that all of us as just regular folk would go through so they’re getting back to more nuanced character stuff again with [showrunner] Angela Kang and she was very much a part, as a writer, very much a part of the, I would say, the glory years.” The Walking Dead recently finished its best season in years, so hopefully we’re in the middle of a second glory era.
(Via Popcorn Talk)