‘The Walking Dead’ Star Reveals If It Was Their Choice To Leave The Show

Major spoilers for The Walking Dead 8×08.The Walking Dead’s season 8 mid-season finale ended with […]

December 11, 2017, 2:31am

Major spoilers for The Walking Dead 8×08.

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The Walking Dead’s season 8 mid-season finale ended with a shocking revelation: Carl Grimes is sporting an incurable walker bite.

The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Carl actor Chandler Riggs, who confirmed his February exit from the show.

“Yes, Carl is going to die,” Riggs said. “There’s no way he can get back from that. His story is definitely coming to an end.”

Riggs, who recently moved to Los Angeles and released his first original song, says departing the show after seven years wasn’t his decision — putting to bed recent rumors the young star opted to leave the series in favor of attending college.

The actor even purchased a house near the show’s Senoia, Georgia set before showrunner Scott M. Gimple told him Carl would be killed off.

“I’m taking a gap year right now to focus on acting for a while. Leaving Walking Dead wasn’t my decision,” Riggs revealed. “It was all story related. It made sense story-wise for it to happen for Rick and Michonne and all the other characters.”

“I didn’t expect for Carl to ever get killed off,” Riggs admitted. “But it serves a good purpose in the story. There’s still a little more left in Carl’s story — in episode nine — and that impacts Rick, Michonne and everyone. Although Carl’s story is coming to an end, it’s not over yet.”

News broke Friday the 18-year-old actor was cast in his first post-Walking Dead gig, upcoming crime thriller Inherit The Viper.

In an exclusive interview with ComicBook.com, Rick Grimes actor Andrew Lincoln promised Carl’s parents will be pulled even closer together in the fallout of the loss.

“Obviously gather from what happened, Rick and Michonne and everybody, the fallout from Carl’s death is, is they’re gonna need each other to be able to get through and navigate what was an unfathomable loss,” Lincoln explained. “I think there will be a lot time spent between those characters trying to work out how they move on.”

The first episode of the back half, February’s mid-season premiere, will bring Carl’s story to a close.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9/8c on AMC.