This may not surprise devoted “The Walking Dead” fans, but the show’s strong divergence from the comic’s timeline will carry through to its series finale. Via a SyFy interview with series showrunner Angela Kang, while the series started “with the comic as our basis,” the AMC program also uses “a fair amount of just riffing off of that too because we have a different array of characters that are in the books at the end.” She added that “we’ve got different directions that the story has gone so we’re definitely in a parallel universe from the comics” but also expressed hope that the finale will honor “elements of theme and intention” from the comic series.
Indeed, fans of the comics will remember that Carl Grimes survived to adulthood in the comics. Per Den of Geek, within the pages of “The Walking Dead”‘s comic world, Carl marries Sophia, Carol’s daughter, and together, they have a daughter named Andrea. The world is peaceful, and walkers have been a thing of the past for years. But suddenly one stumbles onto Carl’s property, and he kills it. Carl then learns that the walker escaped from Hershel Greene’s keeping. Greene runs a carnival and the walkers are a part of his sideshow, and after killing it, Carl is charged with the destruction of Greene’s property. Carl is then tasked with replacing the walker as a form of penance to the law and to Greene alike.
Sophia, Hershel, and Carl are all dead in the television version of “The Walking Dead,” which makes recreating the comic version of the series’ ending wholly impossible — unless the show wishes to erase seasons worth of major milestone events. Hey, other dramas have gone there before.