The Walking Dead season eight has been a complete rollercoaster with All Out War between series’ lead Rick Grimes (played by Andrew Lincoln) and super villain Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) so far.
The latest season has also seen its most devastating death yet with the loss of Rick’s son Carl Grimes (Chandler Riggs) after he received a bite from a roaming Walker on his abdomen in episode eight.
While the furore surrounding his exit has been at the forefront of most people’s minds since the show’s midseason finale, SFX artist Greg has revealed that he would take back another death instead.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Greg revealed: “I would probably save Glen [Rhee], because I loved his character. I remember reading the comic book – I was sitting at Comic Con with Steven [Yeun] on one side of me and Robert Kirkman on the other and I had issue 100 and I saw that panel of him with his eyeball hanging out going, ‘Maggie!’
“I looked at it and I looked at Steven and I was like, ‘Did you see this?’ And he went, ‘Yeah’, and then I went, ‘Robert, what the f**k’s wrong with you? Really?’”
The 55-year-old producer also shared that he was truly knocked by how “brutal” the fan-favourite character’s death was on the series.
Viewers will remember that the graphic scene saw Negan use his trusty bat Lucille in one fell swoop against the soon-to-be father, leading to some of the show’s most horrifying images ever filmed.
Greg continued: “I remember being affected by how swift and senseless and brutal it was, but that’s what made it effective.
“I didn’t see it coming and it happened to someone that I love, and then of course two or three years later we’re talking about the episode and we’re like, ‘Ok this is the episode where Glen’s gonna go,’ and I was the one who did it.
“So I remembered the moment I saw the panel at Comic Con and I remembered it being on set and looking at the monitor and seeing the same frame, which was hard.”
In terms of how long the production team were building up to that monumental episode at the start of season seven, Greg admitted that it made it worse to wait so long with the knowledge of Steven’s departure from the series.
“The year before that we were getting up to issue 100 and we all knew it was coming, which I think that made it a little worse,” he carried on. “Like, ‘Ok you’ve got a dentist appointment on the 15th,’ so it’s like you’re just waiting for it.
“That’s how it was with Steven because there was so much talk about it and we knew that it was going to exist in some form, so as it got closer to it it got harder for a lot of us, especially Steven.”
In terms of Carl’s death, the producer revealed he wouldn’t have made that same choice, but found it easy to reason with Scott Gimple’s thinking in terms of the shocking storyline.
“I personally would have strayed a little closer to the comic book only knowing where Carl’s future in the comic book goes,” Greg explained. “All of this took all of us by surprise, even when I heard about it I was like, ‘Oh, really?’
“I think part of the reason I acted that way was because I had a preconceived notion of where his story was already going, so when you stop and think about it and ignore the fact that one potential future is Carl taking over it makes sense.
“If Carl’s point and place in the story is to really help drive home to Rick that if Rick doesn’t find peace there’s not gonna be anyone left to live, well that’s a critical piece of info that he needs to have,” he added.
The Walking Dead continues tonight in the US and follows in the UK tomorrow at 9pm on Fox.
