Over the last few seasons of The Walking Dead, Melissa McBride’s Carol has emerged as a fan-favorite character and one of the show’s biggest bad asses. But Carol’s unexpected rise in prominence almost never came to pass.

In a new interview, The Walking Dead executive producer and zombie makeup guru Greg Nicotero revealed that Carol was nearly killed off in the third season because the writers didn’t have any idea of what to do with her!

“Not a lot of people know that when we were shooting season three, in the episode where T-Dog died, there was a moment where Carol was going to die in lieu of T-Dog’s character.” Nicotero told SFX Magazine. “At that point there was some concern in the writers’ room that they didn’t know where to take her character. So the fact that [showrunner] Scott Gimple and the writers have been able to craft this amazing journey for her just goes to show that there is a tremendous amount of story to tell for a lot of these characters.”

The episode that Nicotero is referring to is “Killer Within,” the fourth episode of season 3 which also featured the death of Rick’s wife, Lori. The Walking Dead TV series has remixed several storylines from the original comic, but it would be hard to picture the show without Carol at this point. She’s become so important to The Walking Dead that even series creator Robert Kirkman admitted that she’s the one character that he won’t kill.

“The Carol that’s in the comic was my attempt to show just how broken an individual can become from the zombie apocalypse,” said Kirkman last year at New York Comic Con. “The Carol in the show, which is a much better character let’s be honest, actually is made stronger by all the more horrible things that happen to her in the show. Killing her would definitely not … we can’t do that.”

If you ever plan on reading The Walking Dead comic, there are spoilers ahead for Carol’s fate in that series. You’ve been warned!

Within Kirkman’s original narrative, Carol never found the inner strength that she displayed on the show. Instead, Carol defined herself by her relationship with Tyreese, and when that ended, she even tried proposing to both Rick and Lori before committing suicide by zombie. Carol hasn’t been a part of the comic’s story for several years, but her daughter, Sophia is still alive in that world.

Are you glad that The Walking Dead won’t be losing Carol anytime soon? Sound off in the comment section below!

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HT: Games Radar & SFX Magazine
Image Credit: AMC

And if you, like us, can’t wait to meet Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan later this season, make sure you know everything there is to know about The Walking Dead baddie before his end-of-season debut: