The previously ambiguous nature of Daryl Dixon's (Norman Reedus) sexual orientation on The Walking Dead has been cleared up. Whether he ever has a love interest on the show or not, he's straight, according to Robert Kirkman.

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The question of Dixon's sexual identity, which has been the subject of plenty of fan debates for some time -- especially as the show never gave him any onscreen romances -- was settled by Kirkman on Sunday night, after The Walking Dead aired its midseason finale.“I can make it official, Daryl Dixon is actually straight,” Kirkman said on the most recent episode of The Talking Dead . He then revealed, "Coming back in the next half of the season we’re going to be introducing a very prominent gay character from the comics that’ll be debuting.”Fan theories about Daryl being gay had already existed, but were really pushed to the forefront when Kirkman himself wrote that it was a possibility and "had been discussed" by The Walking Dead writers earlier this year. While there has been plenty of "Is this going to turn into a relationship?" fan chatter regarding Daryl and characters he's bonded with like Carol and Beth, he's never actually been shown to have overt romantic feelings towards anyone on the series up until this point.On Talking Dead, Kirkman again said the writers had explored revealing Daryl was gay -- and that the network had no problem with it -- but added, "we ultimately didn’t do that.”

Cassidee is a freelance writer for various outlets around the web. You can chat with her about all things geeky on Twitter