Walking Dead Creator Pinkie-Swears This Crazy Fan Theory Is Bunk

By David Wharton | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

RickComaAMC’s The Walking Dead is one of the most popular shows on the air right now, a genuine pop culture phenomenon that only seems to keep getting bigger. Along with HBO’s Game of Thrones, it’s taken up the mantle of such previous genre heavy-hitters as Lost or The X-Files. And just like those shows before it, the level of fan passion inevitably means there’s going to be a ton of crazy rumors and fan theories as the story unfolds. Since The Walking Dead is based on the pre-existing comic series created by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore, much of that speculation centers on how the show will adapt, alter, or abandon elements from the comics But every once in a while you get a real whopper that seems to have come out of nowhere. Like, for instance: what if the whole damn Walking Dead storyline is just a dream?

See, some fans had gotten it into their heads that all this zombie carnage we’ve been watching for five seasons is unfolding solely inside the noggin of one Rick Grimes, who never came out of that coma he entered in the pilot. It’s hardly a new idea. The whole “it was a dream” thing has been used before — to varying degrees of success — in shows like Dallas, St. Elsewhere, and Newhart. It’s gone beyond cliché and become shorthand for the TV fan’s worst-case scenario, the nagging fear that your favorite bit of entertainment is destined to let you down. “We’re out of ideas, so what the hell, it was all a dream.”

All of which should make it patently obvious that neither The Walking Dead nor any other show worth its salt in 2014 would dare run with the “it’s all a dream” angle. It’s the narrative equivalent of having your bluff called, then throwing your chips in the air and hoping it’ll distract the other players long enough for you to make an escape. Honestly, it should go without saying that The Walking Dead isn’t a dream. But this is the Internet, and ignoring the Internet doesn’t work. So instead Robert Kirkman took to Twitter to address the rumor head on.

Well, there you have it. The Walking Dead isn’t a dream. Rick isn’t still in a coma. That bad thing really did happen to poor old Bob. The show may have its problems — actually, scratch that, the show definitely has its problems — but a cop-out “it’s a dream” ending won’t be among them.

Of course, Robert Kirkman does so love to poke an anthill, so he followed that tweet up with this one…

Okay, that’s just cruel. Not because it’ll encourage the tinfoil-hat fans or anything. No, I mean you shouldn’t tease poor Nick Venable with the possibility that Carl might not exist. That’s like his fondest wish, and we already have to keep him sedated so he doesn’t just post elaborate Carl death fantasies all day long. Not cool, Kirkman!