SPOILERS
Historically, The Walking Dead fan site, The Spoiling Dead Fans, has been so accurate about predicting huge moments on upcoming episodes of The Walking Dead that AMC has threatened litigation against them. Threats of litigation haven’t stopped the site from spoiling episodes, but the site surprised many in its community last week when it announced that it would not reveal the “shocking moment” in the midseason finale, which we now know was the impending death of Carl Grimes.
Some suspected that The Spoiling Dead Fans simply didn’t know who would die in the episode, while others wondered if there were other forces at play. It turns out, there were other forces. The reason why The Spoiling Dead Fans did not reveal the death of Carl Grimes: the actor who plays Carl, Chandler Riggs, simply asked them. He wasn’t threatening. He wasn’t mean about it. In a message to The Spoiling Dead Fans admin, Riggs simply appealed to the site’s better angels (via Cinemablend):
Hi, So I’ve come to realize that you all have probably figured out the big reveal at the end of 808. If not, you will soon enough via one of your sources. I get that you guys have been doing this since we started, but I have a request. Out of respect for me, for Carl, and for one of the last few seasons of the show, I’m asking you to not spoil the ending of 808 once your sources inform you of what happens. I poured my heart into a couple of episodes this season, and 808 is one of them. I’m so proud of my performance and a lot of it rides off of a surprise ending. Of course, this is what you all do, but the integrity of what happens is pretty crucial to my performance throughout the rest of the episode, so I’d really appreciate it if you all would hold back just this one time.
Sometimes, all it takes is a kind note, although, it should be noted that The Spoiling Dead Fans — while not spoiling Carl’s death, exactly — had reported that Chandler Riggs hadn’t been on set since filming the midseason finale, so many fans drew their own conclusions.
In addition to writing the note, Riggs — who wasn’t exactly happy about being killed off the show, nor was his father — also promised the Spoiling Dead Fans admin a follow-up message to the community to diffuse any tension created by the site’s decision not to spoil the midseason finale.
I don’t really know how to start this other than saying thank you. Though we (cast & crew) have kinda always been super frustrated with this community, seeing how dedicated you all are to the show over the last few weeks really gives me a new appreciation for you all. Up until 701, I hated seeing our hard work getting leaked, but once 701 aired with a large chunk of the fanbase knowing what would happen, it made me realize that knowing what happens doesn’t always take away the integrity of the show. though many people knew who was going to die, they still cried and shook in terror seeing the characters they loved getting killed. That being said, I reached out to Ninja [a site administrator] a few weeks ago asking to not reveal the end of 808, since a lot of my performance relied on how the episode ends. Ninja & Shiny knew that they would take a lot of heat from this decision, but them caring more about how I felt towards this episode than their reputation gave me a massive new level of respect and appreciation towards them.
I’m not sure how often direct appeals to fan sites from members of the cast will work in the future, but it was nice to have at least one episode not spoiled for the rabid fan base, even if they did have their hunches. Unfortunately, while Chandler Riggs could stop spoiler sites from revealing his death, he couldn’t convince Scott Gimple to give him a more epic exit. We’ll see exactly how that death plays out when The Walking Dead returns on February 25th.
(via Cinemablend)
