Norman Reedus also talks about how the brutal killings in the season 7 premiere affect his character, saying that Daryl 'goes very, very dark.'
- Oct 24, 2016
AceShowbiz - Daryl's actions triggered one of the deaths in "The Walking Dead" season 7 premiere. [SPOILER ALERT!] Daryl punched Negan after the ruthless villain tormented Rosita with Abraham's remains on his bat. Negan wanted to "shut that s**t down" and he did it by killing Glenn.
Speaking to ComicBook.com about how Daryl would feel about it, actor Norman Reedus says, "I think it weighs heavily on him. I don't know that anybody in that group blames him or anything, but he blames himelf more than anything." His part in Glenn's death will definitely affect Daryl as Reedus adds, "It really brings him down to a certain level where whatever s***ty thing is thrown at him, he is just going to take it."
Losing two friends at almost the same time, Daryl "goes very, very dark," Reedus reveals. "He does certain things that he can't go back from. He goes to a very, very dark, dark place. It's a combination of hatred. It's a combination of self-loathing. It's different from when he first started on the show," he shares.
The actor further dishes on his character, "He has a big chip on his shoulder. He thought people wouldn't like him. He didn't give a s**t. He hates you, too. It turns now into he kind of hates himself. He hates the world that we're in, and he doesn't lose the fight in him, but he definitely no longer sees anything good in the world, that's for sure."
Meanwhile, on "The Walking Dead" retrospective special, Reedus talked about the bond between Daryl and Rick, whom Daryl sees as "the brother that Merle couldn't have been." He said, "The bond between Rick and Daryl...As the family breaks apart and loses family members and stuff like that, the bond just gets closer with the people that are still there."
"That bond doesn't go anywhere," he continued, "but through a series of events this season, the dynamics change a bit. That whole group is in such a broken place right now. The bond is still there, but I don't know if it will. It's actually broken quite a bit."
Steven Yeun and Michael Cudlitz, whose characters Glenn and Abraham became Negan's first victims on the show, have talked about the brutal deaths. Yeun said about Glenn's fate, which was exactly how the character died in the comic books, "Personally for me, I think the death in the comic, Robert wrote such a messed up but at the same time incredible way to take something away - to make a story as impactful as it is."
Abraham lasted a little bit longer on the show. Cudlitz commented on this, "Look, for anyone who follows the graphic novel, he's on borrowed time. Denise took his death graciously two episodes prior... so I think at that point I had gone beyond where he was in the graphic novel. I know [comic creator Robert Kirkman] always said he was not happy with how he took Abraham out in the graphic novel so I was curious to see where we go from there. And yeah, I think in the group, he made it very clear to Negan that if he was going to take somebody, take me if it's going to help protect the rest of the group."
About Abraham's final line of "suck my nuts," the actor jokingly said on "Talking Dead", "That' always satisfying, right? To actually insert something in there, I thought it was awesome. And I think it's very, very appropriate for him to go out that way."
