The Walking Dead season 8: Chandler Riggs confirms Carl dies: 'I never expected them to kill me off'

*Major spoilers follow for The Walking Dead season 8 episode 8*

*Major spoilers follow for The Walking Dead season 8 episode 8 - read our review here*

The midseason finale of The Walking Dead revealed that its biggest death yet is imminent following a reveal in the closing moments which undoubtedly dropped jaws the world over.

It was discovered that Carl (Chandler Riggs) has suffered a walker bite and will depart the series he's appeared on since 2010 when the show returns from its hiatus in February - news the actor himself confirmed in an interview following the traumatic episode.

“Yes, Carl is going to die,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “There's no way he can get back from that. His story is definitely coming to an end.”

The 18-year-old actor, a lead star who first appeared on the show as the son of Andrew Lincoln's Rick Grimes when he was just 11, has revealed his shock at discovering Carl was to be killed off - especially considering his character overtakes his father as leader in the comic book; this is easily the biggest departure from the source material yet.

Chandler Riggs as Carl Grimes in 'The Walking Dead' (AMC)

Describing the news as “devastating,” Riggs said: I didn't expect for Carl to ever get killed off. But it serves a good purpose in the story. There's still a little more left in Carl's story - in episode nine [the midseason premiere in 2018] — and that impacts Rick, Michonne and everyone.

He continued: “I was planning on going to college until I found out. I found out when I was doing rehearsals for episode six back in June. It was quite the shocker for me, Andy and everyone because I don't think anyone saw it coming. Scott [Gimple, showrunner] wanted to meet in person because it was such a big deal.”

Speaking about Gimple's justification for Carl's death, Riggs elaborated: Scott was trying to figure out how to bridge the gap between Rick not wanting to kill Negan and Rick also really wanting to kill Negan, which he does right now [in the show's story]. Scott's way to get around that was to make Carl this really humanitarian figure and person who could see the good in people and see that people can change and not everyone out there is bad.

“That's what Carl's talk to Rick was in this episode: there's no way that they can kill every one of the Saviours and not everyone is a bad person and there has to be some way forward than just killing people.”

Since the episode, Rigg's father caused controversy by claiming Gimple "fired" his son having stated they wanted him for "the next three years."

The Walking Dead season eight returns in the US on AMC February 2018 with the UK premiere arriving on FOX. It will also return on NOWTV

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