‘Walking Dead’: Did Michael Cudlitz Just Reveal A Spoiler, Or Is It Misdirection?

Michael Cudlitz, who plays the burly Abraham on The Walking Dead, dished with Pop Sugar on his romantic triangle, breaking Rosita’s heart, falling in love, and dodging an arrow to the eye. And naturally, Walking Dead fans will be happy to know he also talked about that controversial Season 6 finale. But did he give away a spoiler about who dies at the hands of Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), or, to be more precise, who doesn’t? On the other hand, could he be misdirecting Walking Dead fans who have been trying to figure out who died for the premiere of Season 7?

Read on to decide for yourselves, but potential Walking Dead spoilers follow.

Many Walking Dead fans were shocked last season at the heartless way that Abraham broke off his relationship with Rosita (Christian Serratos) when he fell in love with Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green.) Cudlitz said his time with Rosita involved some geniune emotions, but it was a relationship born in the heat of that initial push for survival.

“When he got together with Rosita, it was more of a relationship of convenience. I think they absolutely fell in love with each other, but — and I hate this — it was literally the high school quarterback and the head cheerleader. The smartest, prettiest girl and the most badass dude. And they had a very small circle of friends, circle of community, so the alpha male and the alpha female finding each other is not that far-fetched. At that time there were no tomorrows. Everything was in the moment, and they were at war. Now, they’re in a time when they’re no longer at war. They’re in a relative peace time. There is a tomorrow — there’s a potential for a next week, a next year, and beyond. That makes you reassess and go, ‘what do you really want out of life?'”

Abraham has been enjoying a pretty good run of luck, especially compared to his counterpart in the comic book series. As pretty much anyone who is a Walking Dead fan knows — whether TV series, comics, or both — Abraham has already met his maker in the comics. Specifically, in The Walking Dead comics, Abraham takes that arrow to the eye that the TV series delivered to poor Dr. Denise (Merritt Wever), allowing the big man to continue on.

Cudlitz explained the switch in the TV series stems from Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman not being happy with the death of Abraham in The Walking Dead comics. Cudlitz described that nod to the comics as an Easter egg for Walking Dead fans, but then he went on to say something very interesting in the context of the bigger picture for the upcoming season; something that many fans may think reveals a spoiler about who Negan killed.

“[Denise’s] death spurs on a whole bunch of other stuff, and then the audience knows that Abraham will continue for a while now. Now we get to see what a world with Negan and Abraham both in it will be like. That’s something we don’t see in the graphic novels. So a lot of cool stuff happens.”

That sounds like a huge Walking Dead spoiler, talking about Abraham going on in a world with Negan. While it could be a slip, Cudlitz continued to push the idea that his character would be around a while.

“For me, knowing that his potential death had come and gone, it was a moment to go, ‘Oh cool, they really aren’t going to stick with what the graphic novel does.’ As a fan of both the novel and the show, it was cool.”

Cudlitz sounds pretty confident in those words that he’s going to be around for a while on The Walking Dead, but any actor on that show should never be that confident in their job security. One could argue that it appears to be a little too much of a spoiler and begs the question of whether The Walking Dead writers and producers are intentionally misleading fans by having Cudlitz imply he didn’t die in the Walking Dead Season 6 finale.

Last week, photos were leaked showing Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) on set, well into the filming season, so those two major characters appear to be safe. There’s still plenty of speculation that Glenn (Steven Yeun) was the one who was killed, just as Negan kills him in the comic series. Cudlitz’s comments could be either confirming it wasn’t Abraham killed, but given how crafty those Walking Dead people can be, it seems a little too generous in giving away information and feels like a misdirection.

If it’s misdirection, you Walking Dead fans know what that means for Abraham, even as he’s finding true love with Sasha. And let’s not even consider what that would do to poor Sasha.

While some Walking Dead fans have gotten so sick of hearing the old “if Daryl dies we’ll riot” schtick that they are actually advocating for the death of Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus), you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone among Walking Dead fans who wouldn’t miss Abraham’s classic one-liners and unique turns of phrase. He may not be one of the original characters on The Walking Dead, but fans love him. Yet would his death rise to the level of what producers have described as the death of a “beloved” character?

You can keep on speculating, but you’ll have to wait until October to find out. October 23, to be precise, when The Walking Dead returns and reveals one of the biggest cliffhangers in television history. Or they better reveal it, because if they don’t, Walking Dead fans really will riot.

[Photo by Gene Page/AMC]