After the grim an depressing seventh season of The Walking Dead there seems to be palpable excitement amongst the cast of the show about season eight. By all accounts, the series is going into full-blown action movie territory with comparisons to Schwarzenegger and Die Hard films being made by its stars. The latest person to share her pleasure at the change in pace is Melissa McBride, who plays Carol.
Carol went from meek and weak zombie fodder to one of the strongest and most ruthless characters on the show. But pacifist philosopher Morgan got in her head in season six, sending her off into exile on a quest to never kill again. You’ve pretty much got to hide under a rock if you want to accomplish that, and that’s basically how she spent season seven: in a cabin, doing a whole lot of nothing. But things are about to change.
“Carol is in a very different place than she was in season seven, which I’m really happy about,” McBride told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m happy to get her out of the cabin and in the fold of something moving forward. It’s going to be action-packed. Very physical. And suspenseful.”
But will Carol return to the same place that allowed her to make some of the darkest decisions on the show? Maybe not, but it sounds like she’s realized that sometimes people just need killing in the zombie apocalypse.
“I think by now, given the circumstances and what she’s learned about Glenn and Abraham and just exactly what this whole wrath of Negan is like, the threat,” McBride said. “I think she’s come to terms with the fact that this is really what you have to do, like it or not, hate it or otherwise. Exploring exactly the reasons why you continue on and having to do those things to survive. I think she’s really, really working that out and coming to terms with the fact that that is the way to move ahead.”
That’s good news for Rick Grimes, who needs his first string killers ready to go as the show teases “all-out war.” He may have several communities that have banded together, but Negan and his Saviors seem way more experienced than the vast majority of the residents of Alexandria, Hilltop, and Oceanside. But as past battles have shown us, having a Carol on your side is often all you need. We can’t wait to see her back in action.
The Walking Dead season 8 premieres Sunday October 22nd on AMC.
