Norman Reedus: ‘The Walking Dead’ Nearly Made Daryl Dixon Gay


Norman Reedus has confirmed that the original plan was for Daryl Dixon, his character on The Walking Dead, to be gay.

Speaking to the Mirror, Reedus recalled that he was told by Frank Darabont, who developed and executive produced the first season of The Walking Dead, that the character of Daryl Dixon would be homosexual. However, Norman Reedus insists that Frank Darabont now denies ever making such a declaration.

“There was a time on the show where Frank [Darabont] was going to have me be gay, but he won’t admit it. If he admits it’s like he’ll kill you. He referred to it as ‘prison gay,’ and I didn’t know what that meant.”

[Image by AMC]

According to Norman Reedus, though, Frank Darabont made these remarks regarding Daryl Dixon during a journey to an Oscar party for The Fighter back in 2010. As soon as he heard about these plans, Norman Reedus was immediately on board. But unfortunately for the actor, it never materialized.

“We were there and he said ‘what do you think if we made Daryl gay?’ and I was like let’s do it, let’s do it! He was like ‘I knew I picked the right guy for this job!’ It never happened obviously, but I’m not against it and if it happened I would be down for it and I’d try to kick a** at it but I don’t know if that’s where we’re going with it. It hasn’t come up other than fans, and Tom [Payne] joking about it.”

But while Norman Reedus never got the opportunity to see Daryl Dixon revealed as gay, Tom Payne has already confirmed to Comic Book that his character of Jesus will be in future episodes of The Walking Dead.

“Yeah, [he] will be. I can’t tell you how that might be addressed in the show or how it would come across, but yeah. Essentially he is the same as he is the comic books in that regard.”

The Walking Dead’s creator Robert Kirkman previously opened up about the chances of Daryl Dixon being gay when he spoke on The Talking Dead, via People, back in December 2014.

[Image by AMC]

Various rumors, and even a letter that Robert Kirkman had written in an issue of The Walking Dead, had led to increased speculation that the character was homosexual. But Robert Kirkman was quick to deny this, and instead added some extra details and background on Daryl Dixon.

“Daryl Dixon is being somewhat asexual on the show. I think that he’s a very introverted character and I think that’s somewhat his appeal. I do have to clear something up, though. In the Walking Dead letters column in the old comic book that I do, there was a question that made me mention that there was a possibility early on about making Daryl Dixon’s character gay and it caused quite a hubbub online. I just wanted to make it clear that I was saying that the possibility is there and I would’ve been fine with it, the network would have been fine with it, but we ultimately didn’t do that. I can make it official – Daryl Dixon is actually straight.”

Norman Reedus previously discussed Daryl Dixon’s sexuality during an appearance on Conan in 2015, too, insisting, via the New York Daily News, “If that’s the story they gave me, I would rock that story. I’m not afraid.”

The rumors that Daryl Dixon might be gay emerged because of the lack of sexual activity that the character has had throughout the show’s history. His romance with Beth was nixed because of her death. However, there has been increased speculation in recent weeks that he might finally pair up with Melissa McBride’s Carol.

[Featured Image by AMC]

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