Five Characters The Walking Dead Should Have Developed More

The Walking Dead is a show built on a pile of dead characters. Through its seven seasons on AMC, countless faces have come and gone, making audiences fall in love with them before yanking them out of our lives.

For example, Shane Walsh became a fan-favorite character over the course of a couple of seasons. Fans were conflicted in their opinion of Rick Grimes’ former police partner. While he seemed to be the most prepared to protect everyone from the threats created by the zombie apocalypse, his methods of expressing such an ability were a bit unconventional and unpredictable for some fans and characters to buy in. It didn’t help that he was sleeping with his best friend’s wife, even if he did think him dead at the time.

For Shane, a character portrayed by the now-Punisher Jon Bernthal, the time on The Walking Dead was sufficient enough to give him a memorable amount of growth and development. Fans were able to identify his key traits and would not soon forget the impact he had on the series and the characters who survived beyond his time.

The same can be said for characters such as Hershel Greene, Glenn Rhee, Deanna Monroe, and Lori Grimes.

However, there are a number of characters who felt a bit underused before their time was up on The Walking Dead. Some characters deserved a little bit more development before succumbing to the zombie apocalypse…

T-Dog

T-Dog was featured on The Walking Dead for three seasons. So, why don’t we know more about him?

The character portrayed by IronE Singleton, a Georgia native, was underused during his time on the show. Among the massive ensemble cast which comprised The Walking Dead‘s early seasons, T-Dog never had a chance to become more than a one dimensional character. It wasn’t very often the character even had chances to speak during crucial scenes. 

Heading into the eighth season and T-Dog is not mentioned as a character to have had any significant impact on the surviving characters, though he was one of the core members of the Atlanta group in their earliest days. He had relationships with Carol, Maggie, Rick, Shane, Carl, and others but was never given an opportunity to emerge as an integral part of any plot lines.

To T-Dog’s credit, however, he is the reason Merle lost a hand and the show still has Carol.

Paula

Paula was the leader of a small faction of Negan’s Saviors. She was responsible for the kidnapping of Maggie and Carol. However, Paula was wiped from the show about as fast as she became of a part of it.

The character portrayed by Nashville‘s Alicia Witty began to open up a bit in her conversations with Carol and Maggie, revealing a darkened perspective of the world both pre- and post-apocalypse. She was quickly becoming one of the more interesting newcomers to the series in the lead up to Negan’s arrival which was mostly filled with diversions taking enough time so the Season 6 finale cliffhanger could be created.

Though Paula was a villain, she would have been an interesting character to see redeemed and working alongside Carol in the upcoming war against Negan.

Gareth

Speaking of interesting villains, Gareth was one of the most underused among them. 

Considering Season 4’s second half consisted almost entirely of the divided group finding their way to Terminus, the villainous group of cannibals which would be revealed to run the place were expected to have a larger impact on the series. But they didn’t kill anyone and only lasted for three episodes.

Well, they killed Bob, but he had already gotten bitten by a walker, so that’s hardly credited to them. 

Gareth, portrayed by Andrew J. West, was one of the more intimidating villains on the AMC series due to his immoral views of the world and willingness to literally eat people to survive. The manipulative and menacing man of a horrifying mentality would quickly be cut down by Rick Grimes, though.

Jessie

Poor, Jessie Anderson. 

The character was living unhappily ever after in the Alexandria Safe-Zone until Rick Grimes and company showed up. Then came the Rick who had adopted Shane’s mentality of doing what he believed to be right despite other people’s wishes and thoughts and her abusive husband was executed only months before the rest of her family would be devoured by walkers.

While Jessie’s death honored her comic book counterpart’s fate, the character was showing signs of evolution as her time on the show progressed. Fans began to suspect her of transforming into the TV show’s version of the comic book’s Andrea, an honor which has since been shifted to Michonne. 

Jessie managed to kill some Wolves with scissors, though… So, that was cool.

Olivia

Similar to Jessie Anderson, Olivia was starting to show evolutionary signs when she was abruptly killed on The Walking Dead.

Managing the pantry in Alexandria is no easy task! The character was introduced as a humble, scared survivor with no knowledge of how dangerous this world truly is. However, with Rick’s group moving in and Carol often interacting with her, Olivia, portrayed by Ann Mahoney, was ready to take on a bigger role within the community and fight when necessary.

Arat, however, had other plans.

What is Olivia’s back story? Why didn’t she have any kids? Where did she go to school? How did she end up living in the Alexandria Safe-Zone? We will never know.

More Walking Dead

MORE WALKING DEAD: FTWD/TWD Crossover Theory Finally Addresssed / Dayton Callie Explains Jeremiah’s Complexity / FTWD Introduces Astronauts, Confirms Worldwide Virus / Mercedes Mason On Ofelia’s Big FTWD Twist / FTWD Showrunner Previews Season 3B / FTWD Voice Over Actor Dies In Skydiving Accident

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Fear the Walking Dead returns September 10. The Walking Dead will return for its eighth season in October with a trailer coming in July at San Diego Comic Con. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter