In a surprising announcement, Melissa McBride has exited The Walking Dead spin-off show that would have centered on her loving mother turned vicious assassin, Carol Peletier, and her crossbow-wielding biker friend Daryl Dixon, played by The Boondocks Saints, Norman Reedus.
The long-running zombie horror series first aired in 2010 and focused on a rotating cast of characters who survive the years following a world-ending viral outbreak. The show has since spawned two spin-off shows, Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: The World Beyond.
A trilogy of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) films is planned, as well as three additional spin-off series: Isle of the Dead centering on Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Negan’s (Jeffery Dean Morgan) trip to Manhattan, a series of stories from anthology character background and a final series focusing on Carol and Daryl.
Melissa McBride is one of the few remaining cast members associated with the 11-season long series to have survived the show’s notorious slash since The Walking Dead’s debut. Although not a series regular with a prominent role until a few seasons into the show’s run, Carol quickly became a series favorite due to the emotional story of being an abused wife, losing her child, and reinventing herself. herself as one of the most ruthless and cunning leaders of the core group of survivors.
According to the report, the reason for her departure was due to a creative decision by the team behind the upcoming series. The show was originally meant to focus on friends Carol and Daryl, the only two characters to appear in every season since the first, managing to outlast even former deputy sheriff Rick Grimes. The new version of the spin-off will reportedly focus only on Daryl following the conclusion of The Walking Dead, which will air its series finale this year.
Melissa McBride has been a part of the cast since the beginning, working long takes, covered in gooey fake blood, and enduring more and more action-packed scenes as the series progressed. It is also likely that the actress considered one more series of exhaustive work to be too much and she has walked away from the production.
