The Walking Dead: Rick Could Have Died Instead of Shane, Says Kirkman

Well, this is a new spin on the ever-present "Will they kill Rick Grimes?" question!During his Reddit AMA earlier today, The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman told fans that he almost killed Rick Grimes at the end of the series' first arc, rather than Shane.Had he done that, he said, the central character would have been Carl from the start, as he survived the apocalypse at the side of the man who killed his father. Asked whether there was anything that turned out differently in the comic than he had originally envisioned it, Kirkman admitted that it happens all the time, before giving the surprising example. "The story has evolved and continues to evolve," Kirkman answered. "Originally my idea was that they live in a high school for a while... that changed to a prison very early on. There were characters that were going to die very early on... but didn't, and vice versa." Like who? Well, there's at least one that would have made a pretty big difference to the way the book played out. "I honestly considered killing RICK in issue 6 and making the comic about Carl having to grow up with this guy he saw kill his father," Kirkman admitted. "But in the end, I decided against it. That was never the plan, but it was a thought that popped up that I entertained while I was writing issue 6. The writer also told fans that next in week's The Walking Dead #124, they will learn "the final fate" of Rick.