Former Walking Dead star Chandler Riggs admitted in a Reddit post he “got lazy” and “sucked when it mattered” during his tenure as Carl Grimes.
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Posting to Reddit’s r/TheWalkingDead subreddit last November, the star replied to a comment in which one user said Riggs “wasn’t a strong enough actor to play the role.”
Arguing the six-year time jump that followed the disappearance of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) was the “perfect opportunity” to shift focus to Carl as lead, the user continued The Walking Dead “would have been able to cast a better actor who could carry the show.”
Read Riggs’ response in full here:
Riggs previously verified he owned the “chandlercriggs” account when performing an “Ask Me Anything” Q&A in 2017.
Carl was killed off midway through Season Eight after suffering an incurable walker bite to his midsection, forcing the teen to take his own life before he could succumb to the virus.
Riggs previously said then-showrunner Scott Gimple “didn’t mention” Carl would be killed off during preliminary talks for Season Eight. The actor wouldn’t learn of Carl’s looming death until after rehearsals on episode 806, where Carl suffers his soon-to-be fatal bite.
“Watching Gimple fire my son 2 weeks before his 18th birthday after telling him they wanted him for the next 3 years was disappointing,” Riggs’ father, William Riggs, wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post from December 2017.
The elder Riggs later clarified the situation in another Facebook post earlier this month, reaffirming his son “didn’t want to leave the show.”
The actor was accepted at the University of Georgia, where Riggs would have participated in online schooling while filming. Riggs agreed to a two-year contract after being told he was needed for three years, and just weeks shy of his 18th birthday, learned Carl would be killed off.
“Chandler was absolutely devastated,” William Riggs wrote. “I was disappointed Scott had been dishonest with a 17 year old making life decisions and waited to tell us.”
Though Riggs has since said it would have been “really interesting” to explore Carl without Rick, Riggs has made peace with moving on.
“It wasn’t just Carl dying, it was also me leaving the show and kind of moving on to other things,” Riggs said in December when recounting his emotional death scene. “So in many ways it was pretty symbolic just for the cast and crew, just for me to be leaving the show in the first place, it was a pretty big deal for all of us. And yeah, it sucked, and it was many long days, but I’m really happy with how it turned out and I’m really happy with my performances and I’m happy with how I left the show.”
The former Carl Grimes star has since pursued a career in music and previously enrolled himself in acting lessons. He next returns to television in ABC’s A Million Little Things.
The Walking Dead, now in Season Nine, premieres new episodes Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.
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