The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus Reveals If Daryl Would Have Left With Michonne to Find Rick Grimes

During virtual Comic-Con, Norman Reedus revealed what might have happened if Daryl learned the truth about Michonne’s (Danai Gurira) real reason for leaving The Walking Dead — a secret so far shared only with daughter Judith Grimes (Cailey Fleming). While away with islander Virgil (Kevin Carroll) to retrieve weapons she believed could end the Whisperer War, Michonne instead uncovered proof the long-missing and presumed dead Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) survived a bridge explosion years earlier. Judith omitted this information when telling Daryl that Michonne was away helping people she met, later confessing to keeping secrets because: “Maybe you’d leave, too.”

Asked if Daryl should have and would have followed Michonne if Judith told the truth about her leaving, Reedus answered, “Not at that moment.”

“I feel like you have to take care of the kids, you have to take care of the rest of the group,” Reedus told panel host Chris Hardwick. “I don’t think, if he followed Michonne at that moment… I think [the group] could have used his help. So no, not right then. And Michonne can take care of herself.”

Michonne received permission to leave when Judith, over walkie talkie, told her mother that Whisperer leader Alpha (Samantha Morton) was no longer a threat. With Michonne away, Daryl leads the survivors in finishing off the Whisperers now commanded by Beta (Ryan Hurst) when the final battle of the Whisperer War unfurls in the Season 10 finale.

Despite going now seven years without a body, Daryl “wants confirmation” Rick is dead, Reedus said during a 2019 episode of Talking Dead. “He doesn’t give up. And until he finds a body, he’s gonna keep looking.”

Reedus later said Rick’s disappearance “makes no sense” to Daryl, explaining on another episode of Talking Dead, “I think it’s hard for him to swallow. I think he needs closure. There’s a piece of this puzzle missing.”

Daryl and Michonne have yet to learn Rick was shuttled away aboard a Civic Republic Military helicopter alongside Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh), formerly Jadis of the Scavengers, who found Rick wounded but alive after he blew up a bridge to halt a walker horde. Rick and Anne will return in the first Walking Dead feature film revealing what happened after their helicopter flight in Lincoln’s final episode, “What Comes After.”

If or when Daryl learns the truth — that Rick is alive in a new corner of the zombie apocalypse — Reedus expects Daryl and Rick to reunite sometime during the Walking Dead film trilogy.

“I definitely think, if that’s on the cards, that should without a doubt happen,” Reedus told IGN during last year’s San Diego Comic-Con. “It’s such a family group, and it would be hard not to have that family be part of the story dynamic, you know what I mean?”

For all things TWD, follow the author @CameronBonomolo on Twitter. The Walking Dead Season 10 finale, “A Certain Doom,” premieres Sunday, October 4 on AMC.