'The Walking Dead' Showrunner Calls Carl's Death "Nuclear"

The Walking Dead's latest death will have a 'nuclear' impact on the surviving characters according [...]

The Walking Dead's latest death will have a "nuclear" impact on the surviving characters according to showrunner Scott Gimple.

Gimple was asked about the show moving beyond the death of Carl Grimes set to be realized in Sunday's Mid-Season Eight premiere episode by Variety. The words the showrunner used to describe the fallout seem to frame the loss as being heavier than any which has come before it.

"It's nuclear in how it affects the characters, how it affects the story, how it affects their world moving forward," Gimple said. "The death of this character, this young hero…it creates the last sort of conversation of who these people are going to be and how they're going to move into the future. It might be very tragic. It might be very hopeful. It might be somewhere in between. Not all the characters are going to respond the same way, and the tragedy itself makes it very difficult to hear Carl's words and to act on them in a way that he wants."

Several factors contribute to the devastating nature of Carl's sendoff, in addition to the aforementioned story points. "It couldn't be more personal this time around because not only has he been there since the beginning, but he also grew up on the show," Gimple said. "It's incredibly difficult. The Walking Dead is cursed, because it is a show that has some of the warmest, most professional, most giving actors I've ever seen share a soundstage together. Yet it is a show where people regularly die because that's the world they inhabit."

Still recovering from the deaths of Abraham and Glenn in the Season Seven premiere over a year ago, Gimple calls Carl's death "one of the hardest deaths," the AMC show has experienced but also says it "is a really important story with an important message."

"It's an unbelievable tragedy to see this character go, but his death is not the end of his story," Gimple concludes.

Speaking to ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview which will broadcast during Sunday night's episode of After the Dead, executive producer Greg Nicotero expressed a similar sentiment. "Every single character death is different, every nuance and every moment," Nicotero said. "When you're dealing with someone who has been on the show from the beginning, form literally the end of the first episode, it was rough. I mean, aside from one of our original cast members going, I think the idea that it was someone that we grew up with, he was nine-years-old when we started the show. He was a little kid. I think, for me, mostly what I wanted to make sure was that these characters had an opportunity to acknowledge how Carl had interacted with them. You think about Daryl and you think about the people that had known him from the beginning and I think that was really important."

Following The Walking Dead's Mid-Season Eight premiere on Sunday night, ComicBook.com's After the Dead will be live to recap Chandler Riggs' final episode with executive producer Greg Nicotero and more word from Riggs himself at 10:22 pm ET on ComicBook NOW's Facebook page and ComicBook.com Orginals' YouTube channel.

The Walking Dead returns for the second half of its eighth season on February 25, 2018. Fear the Walking Dead will debut its fourth season after The Walking Dead concludes its eighth, at 10 pm ET on April 15. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter.

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