‘The Walking Dead’s Robert Kirkman Reveals The Killed Off Character He Would Like To Bring Back

The Walking Dead creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman, answering fan questions aboard Walker Stalker Cruise 2018, named Tyreese (Chad Coleman) as the character he would most like to see return to the land of the living.

Asked for his pick if any one Walking Dead character could be resurrected, Kirkman held off answering as fans called out for their favorite departed cast members, including cries for T-Dog (IronE Singleton) and Glenn (Steven Yeun).

“No, not Glenn,” Kirkman said with an exaggerated eye roll. “T-Dog would be good.”

“I love Steven Yeun as much as the next guy, but I mean, enough, come on,” he explained, laughing.

Kirkman named former NFL player and teddy bear-like Tyreese, who joined the series in episode 3×08. One of the group’s more reserved and pacifistic members, Tyreese ultimately lost his life in episode 5×09, bleeding out from a walker bite.

“No, I mean, I always loved Tyreese,” Kirkman said.

“I miss the character a lot in the comics, and it was great getting to write him again for the show, and you know, I thought he was a cool guy. I liked how gentle he was and how ill-equipped for the world he was and what a struggle it was for him to bash people’s heads in with that hammer.”

“Yeah, either him, I don’t know, or Carl,” he added with a laugh.

Carl Grimes, played by now 18-year-old actor Chandler Riggs, will be The Walking Dead‘s next major death when the series returns Sunday. Carl revealed an incurable walker bite in the final moments of the season 8 winter finale, dooming him to succumb to the wound and die in the mid-season premiere.

Kirkman earlier trolled fans about the young Grimes’ death, saying he “might not” die, but Riggs has exited the show after eight years.

“Yes, Carl is going to die,” Riggs said in a December tell-all with The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s no way he can get back from that. His story is definitely coming to an end.”

Leading man Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes, said Carl’s death is the biggest deviation yet from Kirkman’s ongoing comic book series, where Carl is a major player and the second most important character after semi-retired Alexandrian leader Rick.

The death of Rick’s son is the biggest wrench thrown in the gears yet, and Lincoln says it leads the long-running series into “unchartered waters.”

“I think it made, certainly for me, a much more challenging and more dangerous back eight [episodes],” Lincoln said. “I think what they’re having to do is shake it up, in a profoundly new way.”

The Walking Dead resumes season 8 starting Sunday, February 25 on AMC.