'The Walking Dead' Surprises Fans with Unexpected Character Death
by EG
You'd think The Walking Dead would want to be careful about killing off characters that its dwindling audience might care about. But this week, the series veered away from the comics to kill off a character who didn't have to die. Read on for details.
[This story contains spoilers for season nine, episode eight of AMC's The Walking Dead, "Evolution," and the Walking Dead comic books on which the series is based]
How does the death of Jesus (Tom Payne) in the Walking Dead midseason nine finale differ from his death in the Walking Dead comic books from Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard? In a word: majorly. In more words: majorly, because Jesus does not die in Kirkman and Adlard's zombie comic — at least, he hasn't died yet.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, showrunner Angela Kang explained the need to shock viewers with the arrival of the Whisperers, the new group of villains notable for blending in with the walkers by wearing human flesh suits. As a result, Jesus' death was born, a twist that couldn't have arrived sooner for Payne; in his own conversation with THR, the actor was a wide open book about his frustrations with the TV series' depiction of Jesus, a fan-favorite zombie killer in the comics.
The behind-the-scenes of it all notwithstanding, Jesus' death in the TV series actually comes equipped with a compelling origin story from the comics. As with the AMC adaptation, Kirkman and Adlard's first stories involving the Whisperers also involved a group of survivors searching for their friend in a nearby barn…
…except in the comics, the group does not consist of Jesus, Aaron (Ross Marquand) and Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), the latter of whom doesn't even exist in The Walking Dead source material. Eugene (Josh McDermitt) is nowhere to be found in this storyline either, for that matter. In fact, the group of survivors who first encounter the Whisperers aren't featured in the TV series at all.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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