AMC released a new “It Ends Now” promo for the return of The Walking Dead which features the death of Carl.
Update: AMC has also released a new mid-season 8 trailer. See below.
The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman recently defended the decision to kill Carl on the show.
“I think Scott first brought it up to me as a possibility probably about a year ago at this point,” Kirkman said. “At first, I was kind of like, ‘Well, that’s a big one, you know?’ I might have had a little bit of trepidation. But once he laid out to me exactly what his long-term plans were, and the things that come out of it, and the things that it leads to, it was something I got on board with. I know that some fans online have been very upset, but that’s by design,” said Kirkman. “We’re not supposed to be happy when these characters die. We are supposed to be worried about what comes next, and anticipating what comes next, and stressing about what comes next. That just shows that you’re engaged and you’re interested. Our job is to now pay that off and fulfill that interest, and prove that this was a decision worth making. That’s what we’ve got to do.”
Robert Kirkman continued with mention that Chandler Riggs does a great job with Carl’s send off in his last episode.
“It’s a great tribute to Carl the character, and Chandler the actor,” Kirkman said. “It’s definitely Chandler’s best work. His work in this episode is absolutely amazing. It’s something he should really be proud of. I think it’s something people will be talking about for a good long while. We’re just really excited to share with the audience.”
Regarding what happens following the death of Carl is unknown, but Robert Kirkman offers it will mean a new direction for the show and one different than the comic.
“There are big, huge stories coming up that you might think will be massively altered because of the absence of Carl,” Kirkman said. “But we have known these story lines have been coming for years. There are plans in place to make it all work. The loss of Carl doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re going to be losing big swaths of the comic book story. It means that there will be some differences to them. The goal is that those differences will be as exciting to the audience as they are to me.”
The Walking Dead returns Sunday, February 25th at 9pm EST on AMC.
