The Walking Dead season 8: Carl actor Chandler Riggs' father claims show fired his son: 'I never trusted them'
'Watching him get fired two weeks before his 18th birthday was disappointing'
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
*Major spoilers for those who are yet to watch The Walking Dead season 8 episode 8*
The father of one of the longest-serving cast members of US series The Walking Dead has slammed its showrunner Scott Gimple for the way he “fired” his 18-year-old son.
The latest midseason finale ended with the shock reveal that Carl Grimes - who has been played by Chandler Riggs since 2010 - had been bitten by a walker with Riggs himself confirming that his character will die in the very next episode. He branded the decision as “devastating” adding that he “never expected” to be killed off.
Riggs' father has waded in commenting on the plot twist in a Facebook post which has since been deleted.
“Watching Gimple fire my son 2 weeks before his 18th birthday after telling him they wanted him for the next 3 years was disappointing,” wrote William Riggs. “I never trusted Gimple or AMC but Chandler did. I know how much it hurt him.
“But we do absolutely know how lucky we have been to be a part of it all and appreciate all the love from fans all these years!”
Riggs was 11 when The Walking Dead began. Speaking about Gimple's justification for Carl's death, Riggs elaborated: Scott was trying to figure out how to bridge the gap between Rick not wanting to kill Negan and Rick also really wanting to kill Negan, which he does right now [in the show's story].
“Scott's way to get around that was to make Carl this really humanitarian figure and person who could see the good in people and see that people can change and not everyone out there is bad. That's what Carl's talk to Rick was in this episode: there's no way that they can kill every one of the Saviours and not everyone is a bad person and there has to be some way forward than just killing people.”
You can read our review of the episode here. The first trailer for February's midseason premiere appears to feature what is assumed to be Carl's grave.
The Walking Dead season eight returns in the US on AMC February 2018 with the UK premiere arriving on FOX. It will also return on NOWTV
Follow Independent Culture on Facebook
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments