Emmanuel Guimier/AMC

Could love finally be in the air for The Walking Dead’s Carol and Daryl?

“I think she would be happy [for him] to find love. It’s a tough world,” Melissa McBride, 59, exclusively told Us Weekly when asked how her character, Carol Peletier, would feel about seeing her pal Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) finally find love at the PaleyFest NY red carpet for The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol.

It looked like Daryl might have finally found happiness with someone when he and Isabelle (Clémence Poésy) kissed in episode two, but her death killed any hopes that Daryl’s love life would start thriving.

McBride and Reedus, 55, have both played Carol and Daryl since the flagship AMC show’s first season, which aired in 2010. And there are layers to Carol and Daryl’s complicated relationship. They have a very loyal and almost sibling-like relationship. However there have been flirtatious moments between the characters over the years — Carol jokingly asks Daryl to “screw around” in season 3 — causing fans to yearn for them to fall into the popular friends-to-lovers trope.

When the original series ended in 2022, McBride was supposed to star opposite Reedus in the first season of the spinoff, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon but backed out due to location logistics.

McBride, however, shocked fans with her return to the franchise in the finale of Daryl Dixon season 1. She then signed on to be a series regular in the second season titled, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol.

With Carol and Daryl reuniting in episode four, we can’t rule out the possibility of love for them.

“I think just things that I love the most: telling Carol’s story,” McBride told Us about what she was excited about in returning to The Walking Dead universe. “Finding new elements in her life and in her journey of exploration of the world that we can tell a whole new story. That’s exciting. And also, working with Norman.”

Even though McBride has played Carol for over a decade, she believes the writing “keeps it fresh,” and she still has more she wants to explore within Carol’s journey.

“[Carol] had never really tapped into the guilt, all that stuff. When is there time? You’re always trying to survive and save your life. And then when it gets quiet. They’re in a safe place like Commonwealth, where she’s got a day job and a desk job. It’s a little too quiet,” McBride said. “She misses her friend and then that triggers up some stuff. It just kind of makes sense that we explore those uncharted things inside of herself.”

And as another season in The Walking Dead universe airs, the series continues to do what it does best: show lots of blood, gore and more brutal deaths. After working on the show for over a decade, McBride remembers what has grossed her out the most was having lunch with the “Walkers” in full costume and prosthetics during season 3.

“We would share the lunchroom with the Walkers, and they would open their face holes to get food inside their walker mask,” McBride told Us. “Then you see there’s like an actor person under there, but still, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s so nasty!’”

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol airs on AMC and AMC+ Sundays at 9 p.m. ET.