In an interview with Chad L. Coleman aka Tyreese, the actor revealed why he was killed off The Walking Dead.
Coleman recently talked with The Hollywood Reporter about the shocking mid-season premiere and the major character that was killed at the end of the episode.
AMC’s The Walking Dead suffered a truly sad loss during Sunday’s Season 5 midseason premiere. After several seasons with The Walking Daed, Chad L. Coleman’s character, Tyreese was killed off following a zombie bite during a routine house search.
After the death, there is no real clue as to where the show is headed. But, the mid season premiere begged the question, why did The Walking Dead writers and producers decide to kill Tyreese from the series? Here is what Coleman had to say:
Tyreese sticks around in the comics for a very long time. What was Scott’s reasoning?
He said it was a necessary evil. When people are endeared to a character to a degree that they are with Tyreese and have been with others, The Walking Dead needs an impactful death to remind us of the value of human life. So a man of Tyreese’s character and integrity — we needed to get absolute maximum value out of his death. The way I live my life is why it’s so impactful and necessary to remind people of what the value of human life is — and also to give other characters the opportunity to bounce off that death.
Coleman revealed that it was not easy for the actor to come to terms with being killed off.
When did you find out Tyreese was going to be killed off?
Three episodes prior to it. Scott called me in and I thought he was joking; and then he started to tear up. I realized this was real. I proceeded to say, “Wow!” about 50,000 times and I immediately started to come to terms with it.
It is interesting to point out one thing that Coleman regretted after being killed off. He wished that he was able to do a love scene with Michonne and Carol.
The character wound up being a love interest for Carol and Michonne in the comics. Was there anything from the books that you wanted to do that didn’t make it to the show?Â
The love scenes with Michonne and Carol! I said, “Why aren’t we going there!?!” But the man was in a lot of grief and wasn’t completely emotionally healed from Karen so we had to leave that alone. I don’t know where they’re going with any of that stuff or who is going to be introduced as love interest for them or anything of that nature. I was quite resolved. If there was an argument I could make to stay on the show, I would have made it but I felt it was right. What else can you do unless you spin him off and give him his own story line and find a like-minded group of his own. Unless you’re going to do that, it was time to go.
We will miss you Tyreese!
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