10 Things From The Walking Dead Comics That Were Dropped For The Hit TV Series

The Walking Dead had to cut some things from the comics when adapting the story for TV. Here are some that really stood out.

The Walking Dead still has quite a bit left in its tank as we’re heading into its eleventh season soon enough. While we’ve previously discussed the things from the comics we’d like to see, it’s also worth looking into what never came about. In this list, we’re listing down those storylines or character traits that were, at one point, meant to play out but were averted by the show’s doing.

These things were dropped generally because they wouldn’t have had the same impact onscreen, while some were shifted over to other characters for whom the arcs made more sense. So, read on further and find out which things never materialized, and which showed up in a different way compared to the comics.

10 Carol's Demise And Sophia's Survival

The TV series Carol is a strong, and at times scary, character who has gotten the best character development since losing her daughter. However, this was a great change from the comic version who was self-centered, weak minded and wildly inappropriate.

What we’re talking about here, though, is the TV series decision to drop Sophia rather than Carol. In the comics, Carol had had enough of fighting walkers and willingly let one tear out her throat to cause her death; this set Sophia up to become one of the most important characters in the series. The show instead decided to flip the situation by having Sophia die and Carol become a main character.

9 The Hunters' Background

If you thought the TV show version of the Hunters - who were named as the Terminus group in that media - were bad, then you’re probably not ready to learn about the comic book ones. It’s understandable why their backstory was written out, as the Hunters were too brutal for comfort.

It was revealed that they not only ate people in general, but had slaughtered and consumed their own children before attempting to eat Rick’s group. There wasn’t any sympathetic backstory for them as in the case of the Terminus group either, as the Hunters purely enjoyed the taste of human meat. This kind of brutality wouldn’t have translated well onscreen.

8 Everything About Morgan After Saving Rick

Viewers probably wouldn’t have liked Morgan much if he’d been portrayed as he was in the source material, so, apart from him saving Rick’s life, everything else about him was left out of the show. His original story saw him become a man who killed innocent people and fed their bodies to his zombified son.

After he was taken in by Rick’s group, Morgan then developed an unhealthy obsession with Carl, viewing him as the son he’d lost. Finally, he had an uncomfortable relationship with Michonne, with whom he would feel guilty being intimate with as he thought he was cheating on his deceased wife. Reading all this will probably now make you appreciate the Morgan we got on TV.

7 Carl And Sophia's Relationship

Since Sophia ended up dying much earlier than before she could start developing any sort of relationships, it’s obvious why this was left out of the show. However, we’d seen a few glimpses of Carl and Sophia’s friendship on the series earlier on.

That had been done to potentially steer a story of their eventual romance, but that never came to pass onscreen. In the original story, though, this friendship did indeed blossom into love. There was a lot of relationship drama for most of the series, before the two got married and had a daughter; something that will never be seen on the show.

6 Rick's Arm Getting Cut Off

There was a brief moment in Season 6 where Rick’s arm had gotten injured, and this was supposed to be a reference toward the comics where he’d lost his arm altogether when the Governor cut it off. The reason why this ended up being dropped for the show was because having an prosthetic arm-wearing Rick would create too many problems.

It’s easy to draw such a Rick on comic book panels, but making the actor wear a cast in each of his appearances - that too with him being the main character - would’ve meant a lot of Rick’s scenes, especially the fight scenes, would’ve been a hindrance to choreograph.

5 The Victims In The Pike Scene

Although the pike scene itself did manage to show up, the deaths that occurred here were far from the ones in the comics. Only Tammy Rose got the fate she was meant for, as every other character was a departure.

The most major deaths that were dropped were of Ezekiel and Rosita, both of whom are still relevant on the show. In fact, Rosita was decapitated while she was pregnant in the comic, so perhaps the showrunners thought having this play out in live-action would’ve been crossing a line.

4 Ezekiel And Michonne's Relationship

In order to accommodate for Andrea’s untimely demise, her role as Rick’s love interest was taken over by Michonne on the show. The effect this had on the original story was that the pairing of Michonne and Ezekiel never came about.

The show even made light of this fact, as Ezekiel was seen kissing Michonne, apologizing for it, and then stating that in “another universe” they could’ve been together; that other universe being the comics. As the actress will be departing, this romance storyline was abandoned from the show before it could even begin.

3 Michonne's Grown-Up Daughter

With the departure of Rick from the series and Carl’s death before that, Michonne was placed as the guardian and mother of Judith on the show, which made having another daughter for her be redundant. So, the TV series decided not to go with the angle of her long-lost daughter returning.

In the source material, Michonne ended up meeting her daughter after many years at the Commonwealth, an event that had her make the decision to stay at the community and leave her friends. While it would’ve made for an interesting storyline, the series never went for it.

2 Dwight's Role As The Saviors' Leader

The TV series decided to make Dwight out to be the counterpart to Daryl, which meant he was more of an antagonist than a sympathetic character for the most part. This was done in favor of the comic book version where Dwight became Rick’s right-hand man.

Unlike the show, where Daryl kicked Dwight out and warned him never to come back, Dwight became the leader of the Saviors once Negan was defeated. He became so close to Rick, that the latter eventually saw him as the only man he could trust. This was clearly something that the show didn’t take up on as Dwight instead headed over to Fear the Walking Dead.

1 The Fate Of Judith Grimes

As it happened, Lori was just as hated by comic book fans as the TV series ones, and was killed off there too. However, what you might not know is that she took Judith to the grave with herself.

After getting shot, Lori ended up stumbling and dropping her baby, eventually landing right on top of Judith and crushing the baby to death. We might have had some real violence onscreen, but everybody can see why the showrunners not only dropped this plot point, but turned it completely around by letting Judith live and now become the main child star of the series.