‘The Walking Dead’ Director On Handling Sunday’s Deadly Episode

The war rolled on in Sunday’s new episode of The Walking Dead as different factions of Rick’s army raided several Savior outposts with the cost of several Alexandrian lives being paid before The Damned concluded.

For director Rosemary Rodriguez, killing characters is nothing to take lightly. Helming an episode of the AMC series for the second time, Rodriguez had one of the highest body counts in recent episodes, including several lower tier character from Alexandria being left for dead and Jordan Woods-Robinson’s Eric taking a potentially fatal bullet to the abdomen.

“The good thing about The Walking Dead is actors coming to it, kind of knowing that could happen any moment in any episode,” Rodriguez tells ComicBook.com. “There are other shows where it’s not really a part of the landscape. Those are the ones that are really difficult.”

Rodriguez says there are situation on other shows when actors learn their character’s fate by reading the script. “You talked to the creator of the show or the writer and you’re like ‘Hey um, you guys powder coat this because I don’t want to be the one that fouls up,’” Rodriguez said. “Then you find out sometimes nobody told them and they get their script and they’re in their hotel room on the weekend and they are suicidal before they come to set and you’re like ‘Oh, my God. Nobody told you that you were going to kicked off the show.’”

Luckily for Rodriguez, she wasn’t the one telling some of the cast members this was the end of their journey on the AMC series.

“At least with The Walking Dead they kinda know it can happen at any time,” the director notes.

Rodriguez has previously directed a handful of episodes of The Good Wife, where she met Jeffrey Dean Morgan who helped her become a member of The Walking Dead family. She points to action-heavy filmmaking gigs as her true passion which was a quality on display in Episode 8×02 as bullets flew all over the post-apocalyptic world.

Deaths weren’t the only shocking element of Rodriguez’s work on Episode 8×02. The director also had to stuff the shocking return of Juan Pareja’s Morales into the episode’s final moments, something Rodriguez is proud to have kept a secret with The Walking Dead family. “The thing about The Walking Dead crew and the actors is that everyone is very committed to this show, to the story, to the fans,” Rodriguez said. “And nobody wants things to get out and ruin it for the fans.”

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET on AMC. For complete coverage and insider info all season long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.