Is ‘The Walking Dead’s’ Daryl Dixon Gay?

The Walking Dead’s Daryl Dixon is regarded as one of the sexiest television characters of the modern era.

Over the course of the show’s four seasons, he has been linked to two characters in particular; Melissa Suzanne McBride’s Carol Peletier and Emily Kinney’s Beth Greene. Dixon has yet to become romantically entangled with either of these characters and Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, has now suggested that there could be one obvious reason for this; maybe Daryl is actually gay.

According to Comic Book, this question was actually posed to Kirkman in the letter column of The Walking Dead #130. The quandary compared the character of Daryl to the comic’s Jesus. Jesus is homosexual in the comics, but he’s also a really tough bad-ass and is one of the ensemble’s most ruthless killers, which is exactly how many people would describe Daryl.

When asked whether Daryl could be gay, Kirkman declared: “All I can say is that it’s been discussed. We have very specific ideas about Daryl’s sexuality (or the seeming lack thereof), and if there’s ever a quiet period in the show where he’s not consistently distracted by crossbowing… we’ll tackle it in the show.”

Kirkman was then asked whether AMC, the network that produces and airs The Walking Dead, would allow Daryl to actually be gay on the show, to which he declared: “For the record, they absolutely would.” Does that mean that Kirkman and the show’s writers have already discussed this possibility with AMC?

Last month, Norman Reedus, who plays Dixon on the hit post-apocalyptic drama, admitted that he actually believed that Daryl would be killed off in its fourth season. This was because he missed a phone call from Kirkman, and he immediately assumed that it would be bad news.

Reedus explained to Entertainment Weekly: “When we were just about to wrap up last season, Kirkman called me. And he said, ‘Hey, I really want to talk to you. Can you call me back?’ I was like, ‘Okay, I’m getting the call. I’m gonna die on the show.'”

However, it turned out that Kirkman was actually calling up Reedus to hire him for another project that he was working as a producer on: “He said, ‘Hey, I’m doing this movie. I want you to be a part of it.'” This immediately quashed any concerns that Reedus had regarding his future with the show, and fans of The Walking Dead will be as relieved to hear that as the actor himself.