Norman Reedus Reveals The Fate That Daryl Narrowly Missed On The Walking Dead
"The Walking Dead" has seen many characters come and go throughout its impressive 11-season run and is set to conclude in 2022. However, the show has definitely taken a different route than the comics that inspired it. The main protagonist of the comics, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), is no longer on the show. His role has been filled by others, and "The Walking Dead" has embraced letting its ensemble cast take turns pulling the narrative weight. However, one character that has remained a consistent backbone of the show's DNA since its early days is Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus).
In fact, Daryl has had an incredible character arc, growing from a confrontational and bigoted person to a dependable leader in the post-apocalyptic world that these characters inhabit. Daryl has also become something of a fan favorite, as well, which is arguably one of the reasons that the show has never really played with killing him off of the show. However, much like any series, there were apparently some (now scrapped) plans in place for Daryl at one point that would have resulted in a much different fate for the character.
Daryl was originally supposed to lose his arm in The Walking Dead
In a recent Twitter post, Norman Reedus revealed that Daryl was possibly supposed to lose his arm on "The Walking Dead." Interestingly enough, it would have been Rick to cut off his arm after Daryl punched Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) in the face. However, it's unclear why such an event would have led to Rick cutting off Daryl's arm. Perhaps it would have been part of Rick's unstable leader arc, though all one can do is speculate. Either way, Reedus also posted a photoshopped picture of Daryl with a prosthetic arm.
Either way, it's obviously something that the writing team decided not to go through with, perhaps because it would have been too much work to have Reedus wear a fake prosthetic every episode or because it wouldn't have made sense for Rick's character to do such a thing. Once again, all one can do is speculate. It's still a very interesting piece of behind-the-scenes knowledge for fans to take in, and just goes to show that plans are always evolving when it comes to the narrative direction of TV shows.