The Walking Dead Character Fans Wanted To Be A Permanent Addition
AMC's "The Walking Dead" is currently airing its 11th and final season since it premiered in 2010. While the show is primarily a horror-thriller about the zombie apocalypse, one reason for the show's enduring popularity is its characters. "The Walking Dead" TV series has introduced dozens of heroes and villains since 2010, many of whom became fan favorites. Some of them are popular because they have an exciting style, like Michonne (Danai Gurira) and her samurai sword. But others are hits because they're just likable — like Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride), who have been tabbed as the lead in their own spinoff series.
But as popular as some characters have been, others have been more disappointing for different reasons. According to some fans, certain characters, like Morgan (Lennie James), overstayed their welcome, while others were gone too quickly. When it comes to characters, there's a fine line between disappointing and satisfying, and even the most successful shows don't always get it right.
There are many logical candidates for the "Walking Dead" character whom fans feel was the most underutilized. But here's one character whom fans consider to be both underdeveloped and short-lived.
Remember this guy? No? That's the problem
On Reddit, multiple users have pointed to Oscar as one character they wish got more screen time. Oscar was one of the inmates whom the Atlanta survivors encountered when they took refuge at the West Georgia Correctional Facility in Season 3. Initially, the group is suspicious of Oscar until he proves himself trustworthy. When the Governor captures Maggie (Lauren Cohan) and Glenn (Steven Yeun) toward the end of the season, Oscar is killed while trying to rescue them, and Maggie is forced to shoot him before he reanimates.
Oscar was a formidable fighter who proved to be unexpectedly loyal, but to fans, he was a missed opportunity. When the zombie apocalypse began, Oscar was locked inside the prison cafeteria along with several other prisoners, where he remained for 10 months. When the Atlanta survivors arrived, Oscar and his fellow inmates had no idea what was happening outside the prison walls. Keeping Oscar around would have allowed the show to explore the zombiepocalypse from the point of view of a character who'd experienced it very differently than everyone else.
For what it's worth, the actor who played Oscar, Vincent Ward, thought he would stick around longer, too. "I didn't even know I was getting killed," he told Commando TV (via Digital Spy). "I was pissed. And the reason I was pissed was because nobody told me. I was in makeup and I saw a script sitting there, I picked up the script, and the first thing you do is you look for your name. I got all the way to the end, and it said, 'Oscar dies.' I was like, 'What?!' I grabbed the script and I just threw it down."
Oscar, we hardly knew ye.