The Walking Dead: Norman Reedus and Nadia Hilker Reveal What They Would Do Differently

The Walking Dead finally wrapped up last weekend, bringing the most-watched show in the history of AMC to a close. The series became a cultural phenomenon, and arguably no single character was more beloved than Norman Reedus’s Daryl Dixon. Introduced as a seemingly throwaway character in the first season, Daryl blew up to be one of the faces of the show, and his will-they-or-won’t-they romance with Carol (Melissa McBride) drove as much or more conversation online than any other relationship in the show. Late in the game, the character of Magna (Nadia Hilker) came on, and injected a lot of life into a series that felt like it was lagging by then.

At the series finale event this weekend, ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis asked Reedus and Hilker what they would do differently if they could go back in time and re-litigate one moment on The Walking Dead. They had wildly different answers.

“I think maybe the Alpha story. I would have liked to hang out with Alpha a little bit more,” Reedus said. “It was fun to work with Samantha. I know she was a bad guy, but I liked her whole Axl Rose vibe, and she was really fun to work with. You learn a lot watching Samantha work.”

“I wish Yumiko’s and Magna’s sex scene could have been a bit more intense, but it’s network, so we can’t,” Hilker said. “And now that I’m standing here with Norman, I think we would also have — I think Magna and Daryl kind of hate each other, but they’re also very similar. I think there could have been a lot there that could have been explored.”

You can see the full video above.

Daryl’s story continues in a spinoff series that will take him to Europe. In the interview, he talks a little bit about the epic scale and some of the new challenges that represents.

The finale drew more than 2 million viewers on Sunday — more than any episode since February 2021 — but those numbers still pale in comparison to the 10 million-plus who routinely watched the show in its heyday. Spinning out characters like Negan and Maggie, Daryl Dixon, and Rick and Michonne into their own spinoff stories seems like a play by AMC to recapture some of the magic of the early days of The Walking Dead. 

Did you see the series finale of The Walking Dead? What did you think? Did you prefer how the show wrapped up, or the comics? Sound off in the comments below, or hit up @russburlingame on Hive Social to talk all things Skybound.