Fans of "The Walking Dead" could have witnessed a different actor playing Merle Dixon. Michael Rooker, who played Merle, Daryl's (Norman Reedus) prejudiced brother in the hit AMC series, almost missed out on playing the villainous character due to something that he did nearly 20 years ago.
During a Q&A session at New York Comic Con 2017, Rooker admitted that he almost lost the chance to play the role of Merle because one of the producers of the show held a grudge against him for a long time.
"I won't get into the whole story, but something has happened, and I pulled out of a project, and it was their project, and it was like there was this grudge sort of held for a long time since, and I didn't know that," he explained, as reported by ComicBook.com.
The actor decided to the professional thing and wrote a sincere apology to the producer. He got another shot because of the letter he wrote. He nabbed the role and spent three years playing Merle who fans love to hate.
Almost none of the people who Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) grouped with in Atlanta at the start of "The Walking Dead" are still alive on the show. Some died during the first season. Others survived a bit longer, including Merle who died at the end of the show's third season.
Now, only four people are left: Carl (Chandler Riggs), Carol (Melissa McBride), Daryl and Rick.
Merle was not exactly the sort of character that the fans cheered for. He was racist and sexist mixed with a bad temper and a dirty mouth. He also had several run-ins with the law and had the bad habit of both selling and using illegal substances. To top it all off, he had the penchant of dragging his little brother Daryl to his exploits.
Daryl, on the other hand, became one of the characters that fans root for. In the course of the show, Daryl learned how to be a better man than his brother. But none of that turnaround would have been possible without Rooker's brilliant portrayal of Merle.
"The Walking Dead" season 8 comes back to AMC on Sunday, Oct. 22 at 9 p.m. EDT.
