The Walking Dead has been through several iterations in its six seasons, each with their own adherence and deviations from the Robert Kirkman comics. One particularly abrupt change saw Laurie Holden’s Andrea exit The Walking Dead in Season 3, something Holden now claims was a last-minute decision that re-shaped the series.

Fanfest caught Holden’s appearance at the Walker Stalker Convention over the weekend, during which the star got surprisingly candid about her character’s indirect end at the hands of the Governor. As fans of the books will note, Andrea (written in the comics a bit younger) remains alive to this day, well-past the prison, Woodbury and Alexandria arcs, even engaging in a romantic relationship with Rick, which Holden claims was supposed to develop in their version as well:

Well I had an 8 year deal, I was supposed to be there until the end. I was supposed to end up with Rick. I was supposed to save Woodbury on a horse, and I was buying a house in Atlanta. I got the call at 10 o’ clock the night before, while I was shooting, from the show runner who is no longer a part of The Walking Dead, saying that they couldn’t write the episode and that he was killing my character. So we all got the script everybody on the set was sobbing. I felt like I got shot. None of it was supposed to happen the way it did.

Certainly AMC enforced some adjustments to bring the series in line with its own vision, first severing ties with creator Frank Darabont, then replacing Glen Mazzarra with Scott Gimple, and one could argue Holden’s Andrea never quite clicked with the other characters. Much of the comic Andrea’s arc ended up with Sonequa Martin-Green’s Sasha (save for the love-interest role going to Michonne), but should Holden have been given more time?

We’ll learn more of The Walking Dead Season 7 at Comic-Con 2016, but what other changes should the series have considered?

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