Warning! This article contains major spoilers for The Walking Dead season 11, episode 18. If you've not yet caught up with the show, turn away now!
It's been a while since a main character bit the dust in The Walking Dead, but no fan expected the horror drama's final chapter to pass without a major death or two – and lo and behold, season 11, episode 18 saw the demise of jumped-up baddie Sebastian Milton. Now, showrunner Angela Kang has revealed that they made the character as unlikeable as possible, so that his end would be all the more satisfying.
"We built him that way on purpose. He's such a little shit in the comics that we were like, 'Oh, this is going to be fun,' she told TV Line after the installment, 'A New Deal' aired. (In Robert Kirkman's graphic novels, Sebastian is actually the one to kill Rick Grimes, but with Andrew Lincoln's Rick off doing his own thing, that couldn't have happened on screen).
In episode 18, Sebastian (Teo Rapp-Olsson) gets killed by a walker after the undead break into the Commonwealth. Earlier, Max (Margot Bingham) had stitched Pamela's spoilt son up by recording him calling the community's citizens "stupid" and reveling in how their system keeps the poor poor, all so that the rich folk "can do whatever the hell we want". Enraged, he pushes a rogue zombie into Max but Eugene (Josh McDermitt) rugby tackles it and knocks it into Sebastian. After a brief tussle, the walker bites a big chunk out of his neck. After that, he bleeds out.
"Sometimes, you want the character to be… I guess the trope name is a magnificent bastard," Kang continued. "And it's sort of fun to watch people be so obnoxious that you're just waiting to see where their story goes. Who doesn't want to watch that guy get his face eaten?"
The trailer for next week's episode, titled 'Variant', suggests Pamela (Laila Robins) is out for blood when it comes to avenging Sebastian's death – so Eugene had better watch out. Elsewhere, Daryl and the gang find themselves up against a new strain of super-fast zombies that, apparently, have the ability to climb walls and open doors. As if they didn't have enough on their plate...
The Walking Dead continues on Sunday, October 16 on AMC in the US, and will air in the UK on Disney Plus the following day. AMC+ subscribers can tune into each episode a week early. Make sure you never miss an episode with our The Walking Dead season 11 release schedule, and check out our how to watch The Walking Dead guide if you want to watch/rewatch the main series and its spin-offs.
Squid Game creator says he changed the ending of the Netflix show halfway through: "This is not where the story should be headed"
Squid Game season 2's star Lee Jung-jae says he felt "horror" stepping back into the arena on the Netflix show: "It's a kind of feeling that I would never forget in my life"
