Kirkman Nearly Killed Walking Dead's Daryl Dixon!

Robert Kirkman, the visionary behind The Walking Dead, confessed during a masterclass at the Annecy festival that he frequently pushed to kill off major characters, including the iconic Daryl Dixon, in the series' initial development. Kirkman admitted to being the writer who suggested radical plot twists, even proposing the death of the main character. He stated, 'Any character in The Walking Dead at some point I was in the writers' room saying, 'Why don't we kill them today?'.

Despite his early eagerness to explore drastic narrative paths, Kirkman ultimately refrained from such fatal decisions. This restraint proved beneficial, as the Daryl Dixon spin-off, launched three years ago, has achieved considerable success for the franchise. Kirkman also drew parallels to George R. R. Martin, hailing him as the "master" of character demise.

Regarding his adaptation process, Kirkman found it challenging to translate The Walking Dead from its comic origins. He aimed to create unpredictability for the television audience, unlike the roadmap available in the comics. This led to significant changes, resulting in a "hodge podge" of storylines in later seasons that became tedious to manage.

For his adult animated series, Invincible, Kirkman adopted a different approach, choosing to "ignore" pressures to align the show strictly with its comic counterpart. He emphasized the value and impact of characters in Invincible, aiming for events to feel monumental. Kirkman believes Invincible has surpassed The Walking Dead in popularity and recalled a "horrible" early movie script he wrote for the project, describing it as an embarrassing but valuable learning experience.