In a new episode of Screen Junkies’ feature “Serious Questions,” The Walking Dead alum Chandler Riggs comically answers fans’ burning questions about the series, and raises a few of his own.
Riggs, who played Carl Grimes from the beginning of the series until the character was killed off in Season 8, has been afforded a bit of time and space from his role, allowing him to join viewers in poking fun at some of the more glaring issues with the hit post-apocalyptic drama.
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“How old am I?” he asks of Carl. “I aged, like, seven years in about two years of zombie-apocalypse time, and at a much faster rate than my sister.”
That’s something that began to vex viewers not long after Carl’s half-sister, Judith, was born in Season 3. While the baby remained relatively young in subsequent seasons, there was no way to slow down the puberty of Riggs, who began playing the character at age 10, and left the show at 17. That stretch of time led to the appearance of a continuously widening age gap between the two onscreen siblings.
Offering an amusing theory for this discrepancy, Riggs posits that Carl may have “a mutation of the walker virus that causes [him] to age quicker.”
Other questions the actor attempts to explore include whether Michael Jackson’s Thriller video would exist in the Walking Dead universe, as the show’s characters seem not to have heard of zombies.
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Riggs’s departure from the series in February was controversial among fans for a number of reasons. Carl is still an integral part of the comics series that inspired the show, and there were rumors about whether Riggs had been informed of his character’s death in time to make alternate plans for acting opportunities and college.
Whatever happened behind the scenes, it’s clear Riggs can look back on his years with the show in a humorous light, and he can now join fellow viewers in asking all the important questions, like why Negan never takes his leather jacket off, no matter how hot it is.