A subset of Walking Dead fans are taking to social media with threats to stop watching after the looming exit of leading man Andrew Lincoln, who will be departing the zombie drama after eight years as series protagonist Rick Grimes.

Word of Lincoln’s retirement from the long-running series broke Tuesday, with ComicBook.com exclusively revealing AMC is expected to officially announce Lincoln’s exit ahead of his final episodes in season 9.

According to reports, AMC aims to bump Daryl Dixon star Norman Reedus up to leading man status with a $20 million payday while Lincoln and Maggie Rhee actress Lauren Cohan are “phased out” with just a handful of episodes in the upcoming season 9.

The Walking Dead season 8 saw the show drop to its lowest ratings since its first season in 2010, bringing in just a 2.9 rating in adults 18—49 and 6.8 million viewers in Nielsen Live+Same Day numbers with episode 8x10, ‘The Lost and the Plunderers.’

That episode followed the mid-season premiere, ‘Honor,’ which controversially killed off longtime survivor Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs).

With the upcoming exits of both Lincoln and Cohan — and the already significant losses of Riggs’ Carl and Lennie James’ Morgan, who made the leap to spinoff Fear The Walking Dead at the start of its fourth season — The Walking Dead risks losing even more viewership once two of its biggest stars are gone before the mid-season finale.