This 'Walking Dead' Storyline Was Cut Because It Was Too Dark

One storyline on The Walking Dead was completely cut out because of just how dark it was.

Speaking on the “Talk Dead To Me” podcast, actor Lew Temple revealed that his character, former prisoner Axel, originally was going to be a serial killer.

“I showed up with the idea that it was going to be serial killer and foreboding, and then, the day-of, got a note to switch that. ‘No, no, we’ve gotta lighten things up a little bit. We’ve been pretty dark’,” he shared.

Lew continued that there were some scripts that had Axel abducting and murdering Hershel Greene’s daughter Beth.

“There were some episodes that were written where I do take Beth out into the woods and slaughter her. And so we didn’t get to any of those,” he says. “That was why I kept buttoned up, he was gonna come undone and be totally Henry Rollins tattooed. The whole thing about being a drug addict was all a facade, the thing about the squirt gun and pistol is all bulls***.”

Lew adds that there were other darker things the writers considered doing with Axel, but even those were too dark.

“I mean, just these really dark things that the writers were talking about, and then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Oh, we painted ourselves in the corner, the Governor is showing up and he’s gotta draw blood or he’ll be impotent. He’s gotta draw first blood. And it’s looking like you’re gonna get the short straw.’”

The Walking Dead is currently in its’ sixth season, with a finale episode yet to be aired.