We were all devastated during the season 3 episode “Killer Within” when we lost both T-Dog and Lori in the course of the episode, but it looks like things could have turned out a little bit differently. Apparently Carol was originally supposed to die on The Walking Dead instead of T-Dog.
What would The Walking Dead be like now if we swapped Carol for T-Dog? What if T-Dog had lived and Carol had died? According to Greg Nicotero – co-executive and director for the show – Carol was originally supposed to die in “Killer Within.”
Wetpaint reports that in an interview with The Walker Stalkers podcast, Nicotero reveals the change made to the show’s original script.
“In the original draft of [‘Killer Within’] script, Melissa McBride’s character [Carol] was supposed to die. Iron-E [T-Dog] wasn’t going to die, it was going to be Carol.”
It was rough breaking the news to Iron-E Singleton, who had become a fan-favorite on the show.
Nicotero continues:
“And there are times when one of the producers has to make that sad call and say, listen, I have some bad news for you. But it changes, you can’t get into situations where you call an actor and go hey dude in episode six I hate to say it but you’re going to be gone. Because, by the time they get to episode six, you know what, we changed that a little bit and Carol’s going to live now and T-Dog’s going to die.”
In Robert Kirkman’s original Walking Dead comics, Carol does in fact die in the prison, but it is by suicide. She struggles to cope with rejection as she pursued relationships with Tyreese, Lori, and Rick. Sophia is still alive in the comics, so it’s pretty reprehensible that she takes her own life.
Our guess is that her death in the comics is why they originally planned for her death in the AMC version of The Walking Dead, and we hope that she has some strong storylines coming up.
T-Dog is not a character in Kirkman’s comics, but many suggested that he was meant to be a mixture of a few other characters, including Tyreese. Now that Tyreese is on the show, it looks like those assumptions were wrong.