What was the timing on the decision to kill Rick?

It’s something I’ve had planned for a long time. It’s a weird feeling for me because it’s been so inevitable. I’ve kind of been dealing with it, preparing myself for it emotionally for years. It’s still upsetting. I haven’t built to a character death for as long as I have with Rick. It’s a much different experience for me than when we killed Andrea or Ezekiel or other characters.

Did you always know Rick would die?

I knew that he wouldn’t survive to the end from the very beginning. It’s always been in the back of my mind that he can be taken off the table for story purposes. When I started developing the Commonwealth arc, I knew that we were going to get to this community that had some very distinct flaws, but was the first real solid step toward getting back to civilization, a place that has restaurants and has an infrastructure and a working government, although a corrupted government. A fixer-upper civilization, if you will, and that Rick would essentially be giving his life to preserve this civilization.

What do you think the fan reaction is going to be to this?

Well, I don’t know. It’s a big year for fan reaction. I think initially people are going to be angry. We’ve had No. 191 in stores and he gets shot at the end of it. But because Walking Dead has so many swerves and misdirects, there are people that are like, “It looks like he’s going to die, but he’s not; they would never do this!” So I’m kind of playing with fan reaction that way. But so far the reaction has been mixed, a lot of people saying, “If Rick dies, I’m totally quitting this book.” But I’ve been getting that threat forever and the book is doing fine.