'The Walking Dead' cast reveals how they would like their characters to die

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Shane. Dale. Lori. Merle. Andrea… Need we go on? No character on The Walking Dead is ever safe. That much has been proven. But how would the still-living cast members like to see their characters go if and when their time comes? Well, there’s only one way to find out. Ask them. So I did. Here’s how many of The Walking Dead actors see their final moments on the show.

[NOTE & SPOILER ALERT: Some of these characters have already died in the comic book on which the show is based. A few of the actors may reference that, so if you do not want any clues as to who has died in the comic, then stop reading right now. But also keep in mind that the TV version often changes things dramatically. For instance, Hershel’s beheading at the prison actually happened to a different character in the comic that is still alive and well on the TV show. So things don’t always match up.] Okay, spoiler alert over. Now, let’s find out how the cast would like their various demises to go down. Also note that Norman Reedus kind of cheats on his answer. CHEATER!

LAUREN COHAN (Maggie)

Maggie and Glenn are running through a forest, and there’s a horde behind them, and there’s nowhere else to go. It’s just a cliff at the end, and they hold hands and they jump off the cliff and they scream at the end, and they scream all the way down. And it freeze-frames with them, with their arms up in the air just going, “Waaaaaaaaaaaaait!”

CHAD COLEMAN (Tyreese)

Oh, wow. It would have to be something that’s never been done before. I think we’d have to come up with something incredibly memorable. I mean, I know I would want it to be heroic. Everybody wants to go out saving some lives. Sacrificing myself, you know, for the others would probably be the most compelling way to me. One of those, “Everybody go! Just go!” [Laughs] And if I didn’t do it, a lot of people would’ve died. So you know, something like that, I think.

ANDREW LINCOLN (Rick)

I’ve always said, I don’t care how it goes, but maybe a kid should take me out. It’s funny, because I was in the car yesterday, and I texted Scott Gimple and I said, “Promise me, when I die, on the credits sequence, you play Johnny Cash’s version of ‘Hurt.’” And he just said, “I can’t make that promise obviously.” So when I die, please print it in your magazine so that the fans will know to play it, even if we can’t. Even if Scott Gimple decides not to, please everybody play “Hurt.”

MICHAEL CUDLITZ (Abraham)

Hard, just really, really hard. As with everyone, I know it’s coming. It is different than the comics, but at some point everyone dies on The Walking Dead. I would hope that his death would be befitting of his life and Abraham did everything hard. As they say in Spinal Tap, it goes to 11.

STEVEN YEUN (Glenn)

You know what, I really like what’s already been said [in the comic]. I think Robert Kirkman did a really amazing job with that. That’s hard to top. What a way to take out a character, and a character that’s been there for so long, by just snatching him away from the viewers and the readers. And it really shows the brutality that is the world that they live in. And I think if I were to go, that’d be a perfect way to go. My cousin actually, he read issue 99 and he’s like, “Dude, I think you might be dead. He’s too happy. Glenn seems too happy in [issue] 99.” And sure enough, 100 came out and I think Kirkman emailed me, or called me or messaged me. He was great about it. But you know, it didn’t affect me too much. I was more just like, “Dude, I can’t believe you took him out like that!” Like, that’s gnarly. [Note: Comic book villain Negan bashed in Glenn’s head with his baseball bat covered in barbed wire named Lucille. It was, as Yeun says, gnarly.]

DANAI GURIRA (Michonne)

I think it has to be a really great story, which they always are on the show. I would want it to be something that exhibits her complexity but it also would have to be authentic to her. She’s just not going to go down without a pretty epic fight. That’s how I see Michonne. It’s not something she’s going to accept easily. I would want her to go down in an epic fashion. That’s what I want for her.

MELISSA McBRIDE (Carol)

I would like to know that Carol is straight-up with the world. I would like to see her comfortable and confident in her thought process and her worldview, and her ability to do what she feels needs to be done to protect herself and her people, and straight-up enough to where whatever happened to her, she just went on a run and disappeared and never came back. It’s kind of like in real life — you want everybody to know where they are with you. I would like for her to not really have any last words, as though they’re not necessary because she made it clear. She made it clear along the way.

NORMAN REEDUS (Daryl)

If I had my druthers on how I would go, I would just walk away. You would just see him walk down a road like Mad Max and I’d get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller, and then a little dog would run on the road with me and just start following me off into the sunset, and you’d never know what happened to him. I would wanna go out like that. Just like, “You remember that dude? What happened to that dude?”

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