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'The Walking Dead' showrunner on how Sunday’s big death could have gone differently
The Walking Dead creative team knew this character had to die. How they ended up dying, however, changed dramatically.
**SPOILER WARNING! Before we get into it, here is your warning that this article has spoilers about Sunday's episode of The Walking Dead, "A New Deal."**
If you tuned into The Walking Dead this Sunday, you saw one of show’s most annoying characters, Sebastian Milton (Teo Rapp-Olsson), get eaten to death by a walker during Founder’s Day, after Eugene (Josh McDermitt) pushed a hungry zombie his way that Sebastian had first shoved toward Max (Margot Bingham).
His ending was a grisly one, but Sebastian always had to die (he is, after all, the worst!). But how he died was something that changed during the writing process.
“To be honest, we had a different plan for his death, which I think also would have worked too,” showrunner Angela Kang told Entertainment Weekly. “We always knew Sebastian had to eat it. He's just… he's Jerky McJerkface! And he has to get his due, right? We initially thought it was going to be a different end for him, but as we were going through this, it just started to feel like, wouldn't it be great for there to really be consequences to everything that's happening at Founders Day?”
Kang went on to say that “it just felt right” once they decided to have Sebastian die by a zombie pushed in his general direction, and also hinted that the way Sebastian kicked it opened up doors for what will happen later on in the season.
“Sometimes when there's a turn like that, it actually unlocks other story possibilities in the next episode. So we're always kicking the story for, does it work in the context? But then, does it also do something interesting for us as a ripple effect? And when we weighed the options, it gave us so much within the episode as well as going forward.”
Kang was coy about what those ripple effects might be, and she also was silent on the original way they thought Sebastian would die, as that would be a spoiler for what happens in future episodes.
You can see what the fallout will be, however, when new episodes of The Walking Dead premiere on AMC every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. AMC+ subscribers can access them a week early.
If you're looking to get more zombies, head over to Peacock and check out the movie that kickstarted the entire genre: George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead. Or check out the SYFY original series, Day of the Dead.
