The Walking Dead killed off a lead character in the finale at actor’s request

‘We owed it to the fans to break their hearts one last time,’ they said

The lead Walking Dead actor whose character was killed off in the last ever episode requested their fate, it has emerged.

On Sunday (20 November), the series finale of the long-running AMC zombie drama was broadcast, and featured a showdown, returning characters and some teases of future spin-offs.

While the final seasons, its 11th, has been low on deaths of main characters, the show had one final tragic twist up its sleeve.

*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*

Eugene (Josh McDermitt) and Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) watched on in horror as Rosita (Christian Serratos) fell into a horde of walkers – but breathed huge sighs of relief after she broke away, using her weapon to kill the undead surrounding her.

A few scenes later, though, Rosita teveals to Eugene that her death is imminent after showing him a walker bite on her back.

By the end of the episode, she’s helped to her death bed by Carol (Melissa McBride), and has one final goodbye with her baby daugher Coco and longtime friend, Eugene.

Fans of Rosita, who joined the show as a supporting character in season four and became one of the leads a few years later, have been left distressed the her death. However, it was apparently Serratos’ own decision for Rosita to die.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Serratos expressed happiness that the show’s producers were open about her wishes following the episode’s broadcast.

“I didn’t know that they were going to be so forthcoming about that,” she said, adding: “I’m so happy I get to talk about it. I’ve been on the show for so long, and in watching the show, one of the things that I really loved about it was that it made me emotional. It tugged at your heartstrings.”

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Christian Serratos and Seth Gilliam as Rosita and Gabriel in ‘The Walking Dead’ finale (JACE DOWNS/AMC)

She continued: “[The] tugging at your heartstrings was something that I really fell in love with about the show. And I just really wanted people to have that emotional experience in our finale, especially. I think a show that was about possibly losing your loved ones, you want to lose somebody at the end.”

Serratos said she felt the show “owed it to the fans to break their hearts one last time”.

The actor revealed that she came up with the idea after finishing work on the 10th and penultimate season after realising that the finale might not kill anybody off.

“I was so lucky to outlive my character in the comic book and get to stay on the show for so long,” Serratos went on, stating: “I love these people. And honestly, I wasn’t ready to go.

“It’s so sad to think that she died, but it gave me kind of a sense of closure in a way because being an actor can be really psychological. You spend so much time pretending to be this person, and you grow very close to them. It’s like bonding between you and the character.”

Serratos also said she’s happy to not “live in limbo” rgearding whether her character will return in the many spin-offs that have been announced.

Christian Serratos in ‘The Walking Dead’ finale (AMC Studios)

“I couldn’t not know if she was going to ever come back or not. It was going to drive me insane,” she said. “So it really helped me, Christian, have closure. And I really think it made sense for Rosita. I mean, she was so willing to die for her loved ones and die for her child, and I just thought it really made sense for her.

Meanwhile, Norman Reedus, who played Daryl Dixon on the show, revealed that he had to be “talked into” performing one of the finale’s biggest moments as he initially didn’t want to.

The Walking Dead finale is available to stream on Star on Disney Plus.