The father of Chandler Riggs, who plays Carl in "The Walking Dead," slams AMC and showrunner Scott Gimple for firing his son from the series.
For fans who have not seen the latest episode of season 8 yet, note that the following paragraphs contain spoilers.
In a not-so-surprising turn of events, "The Walking Dead" midseason finale saw an explosive revenge from Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his group called Saviors. With the fighters of Alexandria everywhere but their home village, Carl was left to take their people out to safety.
He was able to bring a number of their people to the sewers. But by the end of the episode, he was seen slumped on the ground, holding his stomach, apparently bitten by a zombie.
While the audience has been expecting for Riggs to leave the show in one way or another throughout the season, there were still some who did not take it well, particularly his father.
Answering a question posted on his now-deleted Facebook page asking how he feels about his son's on-screen death, William Riggs shared his displeasure.
"Watching Gimple fire my son 2 weeks before his 18th birthday after telling him they wanted him for the next 3 years was disappointing. I never trusted Gimple or AMC but Chandler did. I know how much it hurt him. But we do absolutely know how lucky we have been to be a part of it all and appreciate all the love from fans all these years, " he said.
AMC and Gimple have yet to comment on the issue, as well as their decision not to follow the original source material, where Carl is supposed to live a much longer life.
Chandler, however, explained to The Hollywood Reporter that it could be the only way for the writers to show why Rick (Andrew Lincoln) would decide to spare Negan's life later on the show.
He added that leaving the show was "devastating" for him and his family at first, but not anymore.
"It ended up being a great thing because now I get to do all kinds of other stuff that I haven't been able to do in the last eight years," he said.
