The Walking Dead creator reveals Daryl Dixon's sexuality once and for all

Norman Reedus previously said he had been playing the character as 'prison gay'

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman has confirmed that Daryl Dixon is in fact straight, though he promised that a "prominent gay character" will be arriving in the second half of season 5.

Kirkman previously ignited discussion when he said that the character's sexuality had been "discussed", and it was later stoked when actor Norman Reedus said he'd been playing Daryl as "prison gay" up until now.

"Showrunner Frank Darabont] said, ‘I’ve got an idea for Daryl. He’s gay. Would you be interested in that?’" Reedus said.

"I was like, ‘Let me hear you out.’ He said, ‘Well, he’s prison gay. Like, you’ll catch him looking at a member of the same sex, but if you mention it to him, he’ll just stab you and be like, What the fuck? He will never admit it.’ I was like, ‘That’ll blow minds – let’s do that.'"

But during an appearance on The Talking Dead this week Kirkman clarified matters, though he insisted that AMC would have been fine with the character being gay if that was the way they had chosen to go with him.

"We play Daryl Dixon being somewhat asexual on the show," he explained. "He is a very introverted character, and I think that’s some of his appeal.

"It caused quite a hubbub online. And I just wanted to make it clear that the possibility is there.

"I would have been fine with it; the network would have been fine with it; but we ultimately didn’t do that.

"I can make it official: Daryl Dixon is actually straight."

Kirman added: "Coming back in our next half of the season we are going to be introducing a very prominent gay character from the comics that’ll be debuting."