The Walking Dead (TV series)/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Actor Allusion: This isn't the first time that Lennie James survived an apocalypse. Least he didn't help cause this one.
  • The Cast Showoff:
    • Because Emily Kinney is a trained singer, Beth Greene gets a couple big singing scenes in the Season 3 episodes "Seed" and "I Ain't a Judas", and then again in Season 4's "Alone". She even gets one in the episode following her death.
    • We see The Governor golfing in "Walk with Me". David Morrisey is reportedly the best golfer in the cast.
  • Dawson Casting:
    • Maggie is 22-23, while actress Lauren Cohan is 30.
    • Beth is 16-18. Emily Kinney is 28.
    • Laurie Holden started playing the 36 year old Andrea when she was 40-41.
  • Dueling Shows: Despite being very different in tone, the fact that they're both about the Zombie Apocalypse makes this inevitable with Z Nation. In terms of sheer popularity, The Walking Dead is the clear winner, but Z Nation has been getting a push from Netflix. Furthermore, Z Nation has less than one-third the budget per-episode, and was made for a much less prestigious network. Only time will tell how this plays out.
  • Dyeing for Your Art: Michael Rooker has been a pretty big guy for years, and was perfect for Merle in Season 1. He then lost twenty pounds to play Merle post-amputation in Season 3.
  • Enforced Method Acting: The Talking Dead recap for the episode "Prey" revealed that this was used to great effect in the warehouse scene between Andrea and The Governor. Laurie Holden had the general idea of what David Morrisey was going to do in the scene, but had no clue WHEN he was going to do it. As a result, her surprised reactions when he busted out the glass and his all around creepiness were all real.
  • Executive Meddling: Conflicts with AMC regarding the second season's budget eventually resulted in the departure of pilot director and first season show-runner Frank Darabont.
  • Fake Nationality:
    • English actors Andrew Lincoln, Lennie James, David Morrissey, and Lauren Cohan play, respectively, Rick Grimes, Morgan, The Governor, and Maggie Greene.
    • Lauren Cohan is technically a subversion: She has a British accent due to living in the U.K. for a while, but she was born in America (and thus isn't a "fake" American).
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
  • McLeaned: Dale. Jeffrey DeMunn, who was a long-time collaborator and friend with show-runner Frank Darabont, asked to be written out when Darabont was axed. He later had second thoughts, but by then it was too late.
  • Name's the Same: Ironically enough Total Drama has two characters named Beth and Noah. There's also a king whose named Ezekiel.
    • No worries, Rick will not Rick Roll you.
    • Carl is not a homicidal llama. Thank goodness.
    • Abraham shares the same name as a Simpsons character, much like Maggie herself. He's not a grandpa though.
    • Eugene is not unlucky, considering he gets to be a member of the Saviors, and a high-ranking member of that rather than being killed.
  • Shrug of God: What caused the outbreak? Kirkman is on record for saying it will never be stated. However, Fear the Walking Dead was later released detailing what was going on while Rick was in his coma.
  • Significant Series Premiere Date: The pilot episode aired on Halloween of 2010.
  • Throw It In:
    • The barn's collapse in the season finale was not scripted.
    • As mentioned in an Entertainment Weekly story, Rick's deadpan line, "We need more guts" from the episode "Guts" was ad-libbed by Andrew Lincoln during filming. The director liked it so much that it was kept in the final cut.
    • In "After", Michonne slaughters an entire herd of over a dozen walkers on her own. Originally, she was scripted to kill only eight walkers onscreen, but director Greg Nicotero was so impressed by her performance he kept letting the scene run. Since she never heard the word "Cut!", Danai Gurira just rolled with it and kept attacking the walkers.
    • Daryl's "You look ridiculous!" comment upon seeing Carol in her step ford wife outfit in "Remember" was Norman Reedus' actual reaction to seeing Melissa McBride in the getup for the first time. Nicotero told him to say it when they filmed because it was something Daryl would say too.
  • What Could Have Been:
    • Had Frank Darabont not been fired, the second-season premiere (as indicated in preview trailers and leaked information from various sources) would have resolved the "Vatos" plotline introduced in the first-season episode of the same name. After leaving the CDC, the group goes to the Vatos camp to warn them that things are much worse than they expected. They find the retirement home overrun (with Guillermo and the rest of the Vatos recently killed), and proceed to take down every walker in the vicinity before having to hide. Shane almost gets overtaken by a mob of walkers while escaping the home, and is saved by Dale in his R.V.. The encounter with the horde of walkers on the highway is the only major remnant of the original premiere (as most of the footage was, according to AMC, "unusable") - in total, just 1/3 of the filmed material remained. The Vatos resolution also counts as an Aborted Arc.
    • In addition to this, there was another series of webisodes planned which would have explained the story of the soldier walker in the tank; who, as it turns out, was played by Sam Witwer. But with Frank Darabont being fired, his plan for this fell through. According to Witwer, there were dozens of other little things like this that Darabont had plans for in the future.
  • Word of God: The Talking Dead tie-in talk show interviews with series executives and actors provides a good deal of information not available within the show itself:
    • Creator Robert Kirkman stated that in the universe of the TV show, the George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead was never created, and there was never a boom of zombie pop culture like in our world. This is why the word "walker" is more commonly used, as none of the characters have any knowledge of the concept of "zombies".
    • He also confirmed that Raising the Steaks will be averted. So Rick's horse will not become a zombie.
    • According to Talking Dead, Otis was the one who found and corralled the undead Sophia into Hershel's barn, but Shane killed Otis before Otis knew of a missing girl in the group, meaning that the whole search and Daryl's near death was all for naught.
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