Walking Dead Actor Reveals He Wanted Asked To Be Killed Early
The Walking Dead on AMC is known for many things. It’s one of the greatest comic adaptations of all time, it’s a ratings beast, and it’s a show that doesn’t mind diverging from the source material (the Image comic) when it wants to/needs to. However, the show has not been without a lot of controversy. And we’re not talking the “Why did they kill Glenn?” controversy. We mean ones that have left many scratching their head. One of which was in Season 02 when character Dale Horvath was killed.
For those who don’t know, Dale made it to the Terminus storyline (which was Season 05 in the shows time) before getting killed off. So why did they kill him off in Season 02? Well, the actor asked for it. Yep, actor Jeffrey DeMunn asked for his character to be killed off early. Why? Well, it was out of loyalty to a person he felt was wronged:
“Dale’s death was my decision,” DeMunn told Cleveland.com. “I was furious about how Frank [Darabont] was pushed out of the show. I spent a week not being able to take a full breath. And then I realized, ‘Oh, I can quit.’ So I called them and said, ‘It’s a zombie show. Kill me. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ It was an immense relief to me.”
Frank Darabont was the showrunner for the breakout first season, and then was fired during Season 02. Which has been the source of many lawsuits. Looks like he had some allies who supported him.