The Walking Dead Star Melissa McBride Didn’t Expect Carol to Survive Past the First Season

The Walking Dead star Melissa McBride once thought her Carol Peletier wouldn’t survive past the first season of the Frank Darabont-created zombie drama in 2010. Unlike her comic book counterpart, who died when she committed suicide by walker early on in issue 41 of creator Robert Kirkman’s comic book, McBride’s Carol has survived for a decade post-apocalypse. Co-star Norman Reedus — who plays Carol’s best friend Daryl Dixon — is the only other remaining cast member on the show who appeared in Season 1 following the departures of Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes and Lennie James’ Morgan Jones, whose characters are alive but elsewhere in TWD Universe.

“No, I had no idea,” McBride said at German Comic Con Dortmund when asked about knowing Carol’s future early on. “I didn’t think she would last for three episodes, her first season. And then I wasn’t sure that she’d survive the second season. And then we have the tenth season… well, I can’t talk about that. In the ninth season, I didn’t think she would… you never know! So I’m extremely surprised. But I’m not surprised.”

“It’s Carol,” she added with a chuckle. “We’ve come to know Carol.”

In Season 10, Carol is carrying out a vendetta against Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) over the murder of son Henry (Matt Lintz). Despite urging from Daryl (Norman Reedus), Carol’s obsessive lust for vengeance caused Carol, Daryl, Aaron (Ross Marquand), Connie (Lauren Ridloff), Kelly (Angel Theory), Magna (Nadia Hilker) and Jerry (Cooper Andrews) to be trapped in a cave, where they’re now surrounded by the thousands of walkers comprising Alpha’s horde.

Ahead of Season 10, showrunner Angela Kang laid out plans for Carol and Daryl to figure out “where they’re at with each other” while facing “other complications” as they navigate their leadership roles in the war against the Whisperers.

“I love the two of them together. They’re so good together,” she previously told EW. “There are certain character pairings because we’ve been following them for so long where they’re in a scene and you immediately feel the history between those characters. That’s one of the things that’s been really fun for us on the writing and producing side to see. Anytime you put those two in a scene, you immediately feel all the weight of the things that they’ve both been through as individuals and as a pairing over the years. There’s just some really beautiful stuff between them.”

The Walking Dead Season 10 returns with new episodes Feb. 23 on AMC. For more TWD intel, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter.