The Major Walking Dead Villains That Fans Wanted To Join The Group
In a world overrun with flesh-eating zombies, survival is the name of the game for the scarce few humans left on "The Walking Dead." While these monsters and the dwindling supplies are more than enough to give the likes of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) a run for their money, there are even bigger threats standing in their way. Several non-zombified individuals have elected to give their fellow survivors a hard time, becoming cunning, resourceful tyrants that perfectly fit the bill as the show's central antagonists.
From the infamous villains of yesteryear like the Governor (David Morrissey) to more recent ones such as Alpha (Samantha Morton), the bad guys of "The Walking Dead" have always stood as one of the show's strongest elements. They offer viewers a look at how people can take advantage of a bad situation for their own benefit and where their choice to step on others to gain power and resources can come from. Some accomplished this longer than others, but at the end of the day, most managed to leave an indelible mark on the show before receiving a violent, bloody comeuppance.
Despite their generally awful tendencies, some "Walking Dead" baddies left many fans wanting more. In fact, according to folks on Reddit, it would've been fun to see these select few join the good guys, or at least join them longer than they did.
Many think Gamma, Martinez, and more deserved to hang with the heroes
Curious to learn which "Walking Dead" villains the show's Reddit community thought should've switched sides, user Bermanator-Turkey127 ran a poll on the topic. Randall (Michael Zegen), Martinez (Jose Pablo Cantillo), Gamma (Thora Birch), Laura (Lindsley Register), Owen (Benedict Samuel), and hospital cops were the given options, and though most of them received a good chunk of the total ballots, some performed much better than others.
Gamma — aka Mary — ultimately won the poll with a whopping 90 votes, who fivee_es described as "a fantastic character for the time she got." A former member of the Whisperers, she departed the group to join the Coalition and rebuild her life from the ground up. Sadly, she didn't get to enjoy this life long before Beta (Ryan Hurst) killed her in Season 10's "Walk With Us." Thus, she's a fine example of a villain who could've potentially done great things as a protagonist, though we'll never know for sure thanks to her untimely demise.
As for runners-up, Martinez of Woodbury and Laura of the Saviors (and later Alexandria) earned 82 and 71 votes, respectively. "Martinez would've been a good choice solely because it would've given more of a punch to the Governor/Rick face off," claimed ImDeputyDurland, highlighting how Martinez's strong connection to the Governor could've made his defection to Rick's group highly interesting. Despite voting for Gamma, aria-nagrande added, "I always loved seeing Laura too. She was a great through line from the Savior War to the Whisperer War."
"The Walking Dead" has featured several fascinating villains over the years, but only a handful were considered redemption arc material in the eyes of the fans. Gamma, Martinez, Laura, and more are some of those individuals, and it's just too bad we'll never get to see their stories take that interesting turn for the long haul.